what the grave says

my grandiose plot
to soothe my waters
the fifty year plan
a self-illumined man

no one reaches Bodh Gaya
but through impenetrable thicket
not a coalescence of monks
with pre-season tickets

and I couldn't outsmart
my own lack of simple
when the ocean whispers
then roars with no ripple

the old man's truth
the young man's lie
"what the grave says,
the nest denies."


quote -- Theodore Roethke