Satori Glory Despite Gray Feathers
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
My childhood home where
The face of the little snail
Was like the Buddha’s own.
~ Issa
My cockatiel named Cocky had a cheek
With orange rouge that might have suited whores
In eighteenth-century France. His beak as sleek
As Buddha’s nose derived from dinosaurs,
Though. That is quite believable because
Above it was his nostril pad that looked
Reptilian in roughness and his claws
Were lizard-like. His beak was much more hooked
Than Buddha’s and his cheeks a yellow glow
Around the orange, and the yellow leapt
Up to his forehead and his crest. The foe
Of ugliness, those yellow feathers swept
In grace above his head as Buddha would
Have soared to bliss and white-winged sacred good.
~ Phillip Whidden