MEDITATION

MEDITATION

One piece of sunlight

on the fence,

shows two days of wiring

on the dwarf Spruce bonsai.

Next spring it gets a pot from Japan.

My old Indiana friend

walks me through a forest

he planted himself

surrounding a 200-year

red oak that fell this spring.

His neighbor, driving by

wanted to cut it up

for firewood.

What are you going to do with it?

he asked. Nothing,

Nothing, my friend said.

Fence rows take up our talk,

much of it. Each of us

with a Gingko. Each with a path

to China and the ancestors.

Jim Bodeen

8 July 2014