Poem: Buddhist in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska

Buddhist in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska

Words by Michael Mark
Image by Hasson Julian Roberts
QuailBellMagazine.com

Karma put him here
for the purpose of being blown
away in a wind.

The house he lives in, the way
the grass in his yard grows and
his vegetables struggle, each of his
neighbors, all placed as if
with tweezers.

His patience is tested weekly,

at the supermarket, watching
these people fill every inch
of their sweat suits and
shopping carts
with all that processed food.

On the church lawns,
the families hold signs,
God Hates Faggots.

He thinks about standing with them
holding a sign,
God Loves Everybody Equally.

Maybe that’s why
he’s in Scottsbluff, Nebraska,
minus 6 degrees yesterday -

to help him strengthen his
practice of universal love
and compassion.

His Russian born wife, in her
last year of residency,
thinks about internal medicine,

and the external generator
that warms the truck’s engine block
so it doesn’t crack from
these extreme temperatures
so it can get her to the hospital for
7 more months.

Then they will drive the hell
out of here, to Yuba City California,
64 degrees today,
where she will join a family practice and
he will have a Buddhist community,

and they will trade in this truck
for a convertible, and their hair
will blow free.

#Unreal #Poetry #Life #Marriage #Karma #Reality #Peace 
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