Runes

by Michael Dylan Welch


First published in Frogpond 45:1, Winter 2022, page 86. Originally written in May of 2010 in the air between Seattle, Washington and Oakland, California.

Kashmir sunrise

not one but a hundred

neon buddhas

 

the neon buddha gets

a whole lotta love

 

when the levee breaks

the neon buddha

begins to pray

 

houses of the holy

burned to the ground

neon buddha’s untied shoelace

 

the stairway to heaven

passes by the neon buddha

 

going to California

the neon buddha’s

open heart