painted skies
make mountains puny
by contrast
in thin air
poor sleep paid in
grand skies
Pangong Tso
seen as by the prisoner
from Plato’s cave
gleaming steel
plow blade turns the dirt, but
dirt taxes the blade
a weed pulled
in due time, beats one hundred
plucked too late
stalk stubble,
the haggard mourning face
of the field
mile high crazy quilt
viewed by climbing passengers,
brooding nature’s mood
when light is short,
but field days are marathon
harvest gloom
white space,
where readers’ eyes go to
rewrite stories
when thoughts cease,
senseless pictures form;
minds abhor stillness
Plato’s pupil knew:
“nature abhors a vacuum,”
if not much else
the fog wall,
flush with the land’s end,
invites guesses
endless dunes,
stretching far as eyes can see
yet never the same
birthing Buddha,
distant looming mountains
breed wisdom
glassy lake,
mirroring boat hulls,
a world below?
standing aside
as beam-totting porters
pass us on the trail
tea-house quarters
cozy and quaint lodging,
’til snoring starts
cool air in face,
trudging up — oblivious
to cloud-freed snowcap
glacier gone,
scoured trench, gouged in earth —
maybe next year
monkey overlook,
from sacred stupa to
the human warren

Srinagar,
drifting on Dal Lake,
mirror of mountains
blossomed branch bobs,
twisting on wind as a bee
hovers, seeking sync
hill station hut
rain trounces the ground
lulling reveries
monkeys grooming
in a triangle, and I wonder
will they turn on 3?
from Shimla town
summer leaves hide the giant
orange overseer
