LONGHUA TEMPLE
being chewed by the crocodile structured the eve of this poem
in dreams the terrifyingly real temple court-
yard at the water’s edge on the mountain peak
only if the hand’s lotus still opens like that day petal by petal
emptiness our arrival half plum half blood
needs only the cold of a vow to stay
in the incense burner the fragmentary life of a camera
twisted moss twists the stone’s eyeball again
the eve of finding this poem
skeleton hugging skeleton strolls behind the silence of the bells
the direction of our surmise settled in a bud
plums drift down to blend with perfumed blood
bloodstains leak out from behind the knee from numbers one
[to seven again
only to believe what comes back enjoying in memory
flashbulbs periscoping the newly-formed flesh
we vaguely remember the pleasure of sex with crocodiles was
[lovely and sore