Buddha & The Boy

better days

BUDDHA & THE BOY

The moon fits through a needle’s eye
There’s a town beneath the town
The Buddha gambles at the track
He lays a thousand down
When he remembers love he weeps
He's not a face that lies
He picks a horse called Teacher
Remembers love and cries
A boy picked up a piece of wood
It became his neighborhood

Who taught the sun to sit so still,
Put freckles on that girl
Said “gold bricks for Solomon”
Who made the dervish whirl
Who made the earth so slowly turn
Buddha lights a camel
The body hides its sad tattoos
The smile is worn enamel
A boy picked up a two-by-four
It became the corner store

Death will kiss your father’s mouth
Close your mother’s eyes
Your grief will be a messenger
Your wisdom a surprise
Buddha throws his ticket
Like confetti in the sun
The ticket that he ripped to shreds
It was the winning one
A boy picked up a dried-out rose
It became a garden hose

God’s alive, but he sleeps a lot
The full moon is a cake
Each death becomes a birthday
Doves lift up the lake
There's syrup in the maple tree
Sunset in every plum
The Buddha’s at the stable now
With sugar in his palm
A boy opened his mother’s eyes
Reclaimed his father’s words so wise

To find a love become a love
A friend, become a friend
How simple and how troubling
Surrender and descend
The Buddha loves his ice cream
He gives the boy a spoon
So tiny is the needle’s eye
Enormous is the moon
The boy picked up a piece of wood
It became his neighborhood

DL