from "Autonomy of the Mind"
by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Mrs. Dhondyo says life is not a happy lollipop
and she has said that before. Not in so many words
but when her brother lost his house in a neighborhood fire,
and she went out to save what she could; while he went
to his buddies and drank himself to sleep--she said
she was, "washing herself off his affairs." Then the next morning
was seen cleaning the yard of embers. She is sitting with mother
who upon losing her composure is crying into her hands,
"Really I would understand everything, if only he would..."
Somehow I always lost her last words. They are seated before
the window; how still the world is before mother's shaking
shoulders and Mrs. Dhonup running back and forth
between tea on the stove and cleaning rags which she puts
against mother's cheeks. She taps her fingers against the window
to dislodge the ant walking on the outside. She points towards it
and it becomes the object of their compassion. Mother looks at the ant,
and beyond it to endless minutes, anticipating a lesson. Life is not a happy lollipop,
she says. She looks toward me. Her fingers reach
for the window as though to wipe away the image before her.
It is her own, but she is looking at something else.
The poem "Autonomy of the Mind" by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Tibetan American, born in India, 1969) appears in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry. The poet's Rules of the House was published by Apogee Press. She works for the American Himalayan Foundation in San Francisco.
Hear her read at:
http://youtu.be/qW2oPCh5PzQ
It is not clear to me if she reads her own work in this video or that of another Tibetan writer.
by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Mrs. Dhondyo says life is not a happy lollipop
and she has said that before. Not in so many words
but when her brother lost his house in a neighborhood fire,
and she went out to save what she could; while he went
to his buddies and drank himself to sleep--she said
she was, "washing herself off his affairs." Then the next morning
was seen cleaning the yard of embers. She is sitting with mother
who upon losing her composure is crying into her hands,
"Really I would understand everything, if only he would..."
Somehow I always lost her last words. They are seated before
the window; how still the world is before mother's shaking
shoulders and Mrs. Dhonup running back and forth
between tea on the stove and cleaning rags which she puts
against mother's cheeks. She taps her fingers against the window
to dislodge the ant walking on the outside. She points towards it
and it becomes the object of their compassion. Mother looks at the ant,
and beyond it to endless minutes, anticipating a lesson. Life is not a happy lollipop,
she says. She looks toward me. Her fingers reach
for the window as though to wipe away the image before her.
It is her own, but she is looking at something else.
The poem "Autonomy of the Mind" by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Tibetan American, born in India, 1969) appears in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry. The poet's Rules of the House was published by Apogee Press. She works for the American Himalayan Foundation in San Francisco.
Hear her read at:
http://youtu.be/qW2oPCh5PzQ
It is not clear to me if she reads her own work in this video or that of another Tibetan writer.
