STUPA

 

Her people are kid goats

asleep on the vinyl floor of a room.

 

Scattered and sprawled

they’re close and innocent.

 

They have a power.

Many of her peers

 

have declared her anathema.

They’re trying to take away

 

the tattered stupa

but her people are ready

 

to defend, to revolt.

A Seon monk

 

she is a mother of two.

They have a power.

 

One man is the father

of a television star.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRAGONFLIES, WARPLANES

 

“Later, we will get town

noodle soup,” said Grandpa.

 

“Shrimp

crackers,”

 

said the Buddha.

 

I knew the statue had peed on me

and felt the top of my head.

 

I sensed the tadpoles in the stream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAESONG KWON’S chapbook, “Many Have Fallen,” is forthcoming from Cutbank Books. He lives in Shiprock, New Mexico and teaches at Dine’ College. He was born in Incheon, Korea.