Oscar in Samsara (first draft)

When the Buddha laughed
"Trash" he said
Skandhas, heaps, piles of five
Nothing stays the same
Nothing is made of itself
The trash lies in piles, in the way
Kick it, and the foot
That kicks is trash
Boundaryless
Everywhere

I love trash
Everything dirty, growing, in spots
Never to be seen again
The faces that I love
Temporary, uncaptureable
Unsolid
Even the monuments
Grow dingy, dusty
Even the innermost thought
The world, and its images
A giant garbage can

I love trash
Walking along the railroad tracks
I saw them, and turned to the four year old
Walking with me
Rusty bolts, look!
And fasteners to turn on them
Enchantment
We brought them home
They became part of us
Polished, less rusty by many turnings
Finally put away
When trash passes, there is suffering
The bolts, did they last?
More than what we ate
Transformed

A picture is the trash of a moment
Snapped off
Poems are word-trash
When words go, they go too
Memories, feelings
Rot away, change color, get dusty

I love trash
The first kiss that mattered
We were surrounded by paper
Bales and bags of it
Piled, in the trailer where we worked
That moment of life
Amidst all the trash that we moved
Back, into the new, back
The work, the kiss, the life
The four year old, later
The bolts and the fasteners
All from trash

I love trash
A gift from my mother the day I was born
The perception of trash
Small stones, colors
They appear on the earth
Are picked up
Rejoiced
The pink and green and brown
The stubborn rockiness of them
And saved, and lost
And suffered, with each passing
And the pattern passed on
Dimly
To the recycling center
The bags and bales and heaps

I love trash
But Buddha, I love trash
Yes, it is everywhere
Everything, there are no boundaries
Within the garbage can
No eye to love it
But the celebration
Of each person, pattern, hope
I love it
Though it leads to mourning
Trash slipping away from trash
Though nothing can be kept
That is where I'm stuck
Particular, attached
To every bit of it
Briefly illumined
In all its stubborn grime
I love it because it's trash


2006 Rich Puchalsky
E-mail: rpuchalsky@worldnet.att.net

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Last modified: Nov 12, 02006