Wednesday, April 21, 2010

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.

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