Stove Parts Says 'Hold Onto Your Hat!" plus Things in Trees

crow in a tree
punctuation mark
to never ending vastness

I put my pen down.

"Hoo hoo!" says Chung Tzu "Saying there's this or that in the sky. How grand!"

"Hold onto your hat!" says Stove Parts.

So I write:

cow in a tree
punctuation mark
to never ending vastness

"Moo!" says Chung Tzu.

"Now you're just making fun." says Stove Parts.

I write:

clown in a tree
honk honk! honk honk!
honk honk honk!

"Gah ha ha ha!" laughs Chung Tzu, holding his belly, wiping tears from his eyes. "GOOSE!"

"I've had enough of you both!" says Stove Parts, as he leaves.


***

Afternoon
Minnetonka
1.29.20

He's Forgetful Says Chung Tzu

"Hello Mr. Pavarotti." I say in the morning, to Pavarotti.

Pavarotti just stares at me.

"He's forgetful." says Chung Tzu. "The only way he remembers things is when he acts rambunctiously."

Pavarotti jumps up and grabs a can of silly string, and starts covering me with it.

"I remember you now." he says, as the can sprays and sprays.



_____

St Louis Park

i was the sunday night date
last in line and i knew it

after we said goodbye
she sat in her car and texted

she was in contact with the
someone who she really loved

but i understood i needed
to get out even for a sunday date

she didn't matter and i didn't either

Henry Ford Who

"Nobody likes him! Why should they?" says Henry Ford, looking up from the newspaper. "He's a horrible person!"

Chung Tzu hums and looks out the window at bunny tracks in the snow.

"Who is?" I ask.

"Who?" says Henry Ford.

"WHO IS?"

"I don't know!" says Henry Ford.



-----

Florida St
St Louis Park

Leaches and Drinking

I look up from the book I was reading. "Wow! Did you know a leach has a three-jawed mouth, two hearts, two circulatory systems, five pairs of eyes, 32 brains, and 10 stomachs?"

Chung Tzu sits there, to let it all sink in.

"Amazing! And you thought you were special!" says Stove Parts.

***

I meet Broken Pot in a tavern. Broken Pot gets drunk.

"You have the ability to be a drunk, how can you stop drinking?" says Broken Pot.

We walk to the highest hill. It is cold and late, the moon is high above us. The wind blows through us so our teeth chatter.

"By discarding all thinking. By discarding all ideas of good or bad towards drinking."

We walk back to the tavern. By the time we get back, Broken Pot is sober.

peace peace peace peace

i'm sleeping there's no dream
the mind like a flashing light

with the absence of thoughts
and unencumbered from ego

there is peace peace peace peace
in each peace was happily ever after

wakening to a morning with
a quarter inch of new snow



**

did anything else matter / after you saw those few snow flakes

did anything else matter
after you saw those few snow flakes

did you see them
widely scattered and wandering

each one appearing as if

with no purpose
each one with no aim


____

Evening
St Louis Park

Chung Tzu Asks Do You have a Fire in Your Head?

"I can use my negative thinking to out-think my negative thinking!" I exclaim.

"Hmmm. Let me see. What is fire? Can fire burn water?" wonders Chung Tzu, "Can fire burn fire? Or fire burn air? Or earth? Oh my!"

"Fire burns wood!"

"Just like the thoughts seem to burn in your mind. But do you have a fire in your head?" asks Chung Tzu.


-----

1.18.20

bodhicitta shining / like a light on the light shining

bodhicitta shining
like a light on the light shining

scripture or non scripture
each cherished

every action out and in
in and out

coming around in a great circle
in endless circles



***

Chung Tzu: Oh my brother. Don't deceive yourself.

"I'm not entirely certain I ever had that. Or even wanted something like that."

"Oh my brother. Don't deceive yourself." says Chung Tzu coming into the kitchen, from the tiny pantry. "You certainly did."

"Well now it is now stuck in my head. Just like a song. Just like an exception to the rule."

Chung Tzu points to a melting icicle, warming in the sun. "Would you like for me to come up with a nursery rhyme to remember this?"


*****

Winter
Florida Street South

Seven O'Clock

There's a middle-aged black woman ahead in line at the grocery store, when another middle-aged black lady inserts her trolley between me and the checkout clerk.

She waits about 5 seconds before slowly looking my way.

"Oh. I got in front of you." she says. "I'm in your place."

"Yes you did." I say, because it is true. She did cut in front of me. "It is okay. Go ahead, take my place."

She stares at me, seeing if I am high or drunk. Then she looks at me like I have horns growing out of my head.

I don't tell her she could be anyone! A Buddha, and angel, a heavenly being in disguise in a grocery store, cutting in line. Or a middle-aged African American woman. Teaching patience, about letting go, living life as it is. Not needing to fight, or protect your turn in line.

As the line moves slowly, she stares at the woman in front to her. I don't know how God or the Universe works. I don't know why we are tested, or when I am being tested, or when I am not being tested. So I believe it can be at any time, with anyone, and I keep living that way the best I can.

She ignores me until she is checked out, and even after that she keeps her eye on me. I pretend to not notice her. I bag my groceries, and as I walk through the dark slushy parking lot, I hear someone like her in the background behind me, and she could be cursing someone out or spontaneously singing a hymn loudly to Jesus.

It all happens so fast sometime, when I turn and look, it must have been my imagination. Cars keep driving, people are smiling or frowning, at seven o'clock.


-----

Cub
Hopkins at Highway 7

I see Chung Tzu down the street. Happy New Year.

I see Chung Tzu down the street, he has a wet tree branch.

"Happy New Year! I told Joe about you, out in Corcoran. But I saw you over there anyways."

"Uh huh!" says Chung Tzu.

"Do you want an introduction?"

"Hah! HIM? We already got to know each other all summer. He's been introducing ME to YOU."

I give Chung Tzu a deep bow. He nods, and hoists the stick.


***


if you're missing the Tao as soon 
as you stop yearning there it is
don't pity your own selfishness
if you think you can't find it

when you see it to forget yourself
if you're not looking for the Tao
it will surely find you because it is 
mother of ten thousand things 

***

Jan 2020
St Louis Park