*******

The All
  

My sister, scarred from self-inflicted

razor wire;

my dad cramped beneath an army tent,

playing chess with toothbrush handles;

my second husband surviving, famished

on a rusty cot in Russia;

while the rest of his family perishes

in Dachau’s ovens;

my teacher Roshi on the curb, cupping a begging bowl,

as we practice homelessness;

sunlight sharpening the electric razored fence,

when I chaplain men in Concord prison;

the sharp-boned elderly, who creep

arm in arm along the street;

and in the distance, a lone majestic peak

awaiting snow.