When we got this dog
I didn’t read the fine print.
It’s only when she died last Thursday
did I realize what was due.
A balloon payment of deepest sorrow
to be paid immediately!
It cannot be postponed
even for a second.
I accept this charge in its entirety.
No way shall I avoid this moment
or this moment or this moment…
It is the price I pay
for what I received from Ryla.
But embedded in every sorrow
is a bright memory.
Inside every fond memory
a dark sorrow looms.
“Bright and dark are a pair
like front and back foot walking … *
When Ryla and I would come home from our walk
while bending down I would say to her
“Kiss that pretty girl on the nose,”
which I did.
This is how it is, just now.
Shitou would say, “Don’t throw away your time.”
Bill Krumbein
September 2017
* Taking Part in the Gathering by Shitou Xiquan (700-790)
Shitou taught that “what meets the eye is the Way.”
See September 2, 2017 post
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