To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia

VII
Everyone goes to the mountains,
yet no one is there.
That is only to say
that we are who we are
and mountains are mountains.
The mountains are coming to us,
and no one is here.
The mountains are flowing,
the water is still,
Dogen is sitting.
His mind is a lake looking upward,
a sky looking down.
Inside the dead man's breath, the living breathe.
Inside the living woman's pain,
the dead, pretending to be soldiers,
hunt for sons and enemies and joy.
The hungry ghosts, disguised as living beings
are sucking their own bones.
The hungry ghosts grow younger,
crawling backward through the womb.
They swarm like angry hornets through the loins.
Dancing, broken
arm in arm with mountains,
is not a children's game.