Bodhisattva

I who once danced on these little deer feet
lay on my side and died. I was long loved.
What you are at the end is what you are
beginning the next time around the wheel.
I look through the eyes of the beloved,
I am soothed by their gaze, one at a time,
six worlds to follow: the sphere of dying
through birth I remember, the dream I live,
dawn’s lifetime, awe, fear, terror abandoned
for what the bardos have led to, rebirth,
I the bodhisattva the last to die
after cropping the first grasses of spring,
after seeing the startled birds fly up,
coming to be with those who go before

(12 April 2011)

copyright 2011 by Floyce Alexander