In my reframed dream
I am sitting in a smoky bar,
bathed in the neon of Roppongi.
with the sour smell of Sapporo and Asahi
wafting up from the beer-damp floor.
I don’t want to be here, want
to be miles and miles from this place
in the shadows of Mount Wakakusa
walking slowly through Todai-ji
in search of something I have
yet to find, something I will not
find so long as I am looking.
Standing outside the Daibutsuden,
Binzuru stares at me, begging
me to enter, urging me to leave,
knowing in this moment I
cannot do either this day.
I sit on the steps, lost in revery
as my cheek is gently touched.
I imagine it is a sika doe looking
for the crackers the visitors purchase,
but it is merely the spray of an umbrella
closing in the doorway, held
by a refugee from the rainstorm
engulfing Tokyo this lonely night.
In Nara, the great Buddha is laughing.

FIrst appeared in Children, Churches & Daddies, Vol 345, May 2024
https://scars.tv/ccdissues/345may24/Wanderer.htm