Buddha of Rumtek
Mar 4, 2002
For Thonten Ngdurp, the Tibetan monk who self-immolated for the cause in April 1999.
A sincere craftman's
Over rehearsed work,
Innocence worth stone
Opens the petals
Of a clay cliché.
Buddha of Rumtek,
I bow, when the incense
Of wood-slippered monks
In unironed skin, burst
Camphor in my eyes.
Like the edge of a
Black sun, briefly breached
By a burning lama
Desolately unstrung
From a tent in New Delhi.
It sears and chills
Wooden spines of mannequins in
In the Barbie museum,
Quicker than winter
Relieves winter in Tibet.

