Emei Shan

mount Emei rises up

eleven thousand feet

from the Sichuan Valley

like a sentinel

protecting Samantabhadra’s

Western home.

cloaked in mysterious

white clouds,

the path up the mountain

is more than ten thousand steps,

some rising almost vertical

for more than two thousand feet,

monkeys wait patiently

on the steep slopes of the path

waiting for an easy mark.

next to me

an adolescent monkey

jumps off the rail

grabbing a bottle of

orange soda from

a hapless woman’s hand;

the woman lets out a scream

while on lookers laugh

out in genuine glee.

as he sits with his booty

at the top of a tree

along the path,

he drinks his bright orange

soda from a hole he has

chewed in the side of the bottle.

Samantabhadra’s protectors

are well feed in this lush kingdom

of China’s fourth sacred mountain.