[Poem] The Shape

What is the shape of the wise man?
Is it the unblinking eye or the open hand?
Is it the restless foot or the compassionate heart?
Is it a book of prayers or a moment of silence?

Is it a wild horse in the fields of Shangri La
Or a bolt of lightning over Angkor Wat?

Is it that fragile water lily in a pond in Luang Prabang
Or the croaking frog in a Mississippi mudslide
Gone now, without a trace.

No one says it is an unsheathed sword.
Few would argue for a cracked atomic mushroom
Boiling an ocean of sharp-toothed sharks to prove an equation.

Uncertain judgment should be noted
Regarding tiny infants on University Avenue
Or humble ants packing their ditty bags
At the first hint of a cloud of RAID coming their way.

And it is almost certainly never found in a mirror.

From On The Other Side Of The Eye, 2007

February 25th, 1996 was the death of Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor, known for his Oscar-winning performance in The Killing Fields.