failing chaung tzu

nothing left undone
the myriad creatures transform
desire raises its head and raises its head

press it down he says
press it down
with the weight of the uncarved block

but freedom from desire
ceasing to desire
even crows and the kites will feast

jigsaw at the library

the sky undone
it’s always the sky
and maybe that’s what i’m here for

it requires right seeing
to finish the sky of another
but it’s nothing to me

some pieces of mine are missing
i keep placing them into others’ puzzles
when they turn their gaze away

a co-worker's observation

she told him she’d seen it
his wife binding him tight
in strips of funeral cloth

his body cocooned
his caterpillared head
she said she saw his wife

squeezing his mandibles to her breast
her milk when he drank it
diminished him

when he was small enough
she stuffed him in her purse
and walked away