Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

after the harvest,
 farmland - dry & ignitable:
  distant smoke.

a lovely voice,
 heard down the valley, grows
  louder & louder.

horses graze upon
 dandelions and green grass,
  under snowy heights.

blooms & berries
 color the scrublands
  as summer peaks.

fallen leaves skitter
 as grass sprouts in twined roots:
  all seasons at once.

askew tombstones
 under a yawning tree:
  a crow on its branch.

over a ridge,
 and a sprawling city grows 
  into my wilderness.

tattered butterfly
 comes to rest after a
  spastic last dance.

the temple bell clangs:
 heard from a distance,
  it does not fade.

langur in a tree
 remains still as others flee;
  it seems to know
 my limitations as well as
 its own capabilities.