(Image 12th century: Tokugawa Museum)
A man does not live
for millennia, like trees.
If he has one wish,
he wants it to be fulfilled.
An expiation
might lay the tormenting ghost
and all his past sins,
snuffing smoke; quenching embers.
Then he’ll breathe on his death bed
more freely for it.
The rat will not gnaw his soul;
consequences come
and outcomes that may endure
for more than a thousand years.
