Floating Cinders

was it a dream
he dreamt
while the fire
crackled
and a barn
owl in the oak
cried thrice

or did she pass
into the night
while he watched
a red cinder
rise from the flames
and float
near the leaves
bruised and blue
from winter's ice

Beijing Poet

photograph by Philippe Orsetti 2009

the poet's porous poems
painted on Beijing cement
soon dry and disappear

calligraphy of ink
and water lasts
only as long

as the sun
allows
or a passing
pedestrian remembers

ultimately both fade
as the liquid dries

hànzì like all entities
is translucent
transparent and transitory

so it is
that we measure
being and its entities
by evaporation
and shiny stain