BODHISATTVA

for Marvin Bell

When Marvin Bell walks by

I hear Steely Dan:

Bodhisattva,

Would you take me by the hand?

He is spring in the bow

before arrows seek

their blood-red eyes.

He dances dreaming

of other feet. 

The last of him is the last

you feel getting soft

in your cells

until you jump

at what made you.

Call your words back

from their loose fire

and put them into the lines

where they lived before

you saw paper

scarred with slashes,

heard beats going down

inside a drum.

There is always more music

than a note played off-key

when fingers move too fast

to keep up.

Nothing loses ground.

The dirt in your shoes walks 

because there is no other way. 

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