2005 07 16

THE CHINESE HERBAL EYE DOCTOR

In Chinatown
the doctor opened wide
saw matching blood shots
floating like a sail-less boat

The edge of two worlds
paired on my face
was dim
shake it like a light bulb
to check for that jingle of death

The room smelled like dying saints
like soundless sounds of plants
when their cell ponds evacuate

Does the broccoli scream when we eat it
the way a giant eats a tree?

Answer:
See the tree not when it falls
The soundless sound is Ignorance itself

You just asked yourself
if you were stupid

Under the watermelon vein
he checks for tears

Points to the black stars
scattered on twin round skies

“You eat too much meat” he says.

I replied,
“Perhaps we kill too many vegetables”

He closes the map and sends me home
My eyes, a map
of health
of habits
of happiness

He did not tell me anything
I did not need to know.

These eyes
the road back home.