Pallbearer

Yellow butterfly,

the pallbearer’s left shoulder

is your resting place.

Shoe

the dead man’s left shoe—

a family of field mice

claim it as their home

left foot first

down the mountain path

then the right

Which way? Left or right?

The signposts tell me nothing

of the path ahead.

no one knows the name

of the third monk on the left

call him anything

my journey begins—

Buddha becomes the pebble

lodged in my left shoe