Formation Luck – beat56
September 29, 2022
Nariyoshi took the tiny leaf between
his fingers and looked at the bark behind
it clipped another leaf away stood back
went in close again and pruned quickly
a number of leaves lent back and took
a long admiring look at the bonsai tree
the stem was floating upwards into the sky
like a dragon suddenly unfurling attacked
or woken or like a Lao Tzu cloud floating
in the universe the green of the leaves
the pale brown aged bark looked so
beautiful in the dark blue porcelain pot
a world unto itself a small world of
beauty and age purity tenderness a
world of attention and care an ancient art
bonsai this dragon cloud tree was a hundred
and fifty years old his father had left it
for him when he died aaaaah father he
thought smiling ruefully he put his
scissors down rubbed his hands down
his beat chino slacks then rubbed them
together and straightened his back went
to the sink and drank a tall glass of cold
water and put some loose jasmine
green tea into his ceramic kettle put a
pan of water on the gas stove to boil
rubbed his eyes sleepily stretched his
back again and went over to a drawer
in a dragon embossed lacquered
bookshelf filled with old hardback
books about zen and bonsai a few
Japanese novels and karate textbooks
with old papered covers with red string
binds he opened the drawer and found
an old sumi e painting box with a beautiful
waterfall rocks and a pine tree on it
took out an old bone metal and wood
pipe chuckled to himself sighed and
went over to his brass and wood
spirit lamp lit it and on the end of a
needle held a small lump of opium up
over the flame the bubbles swelled and
turned golden and Miyage lay his head
down on his embroidered opium pillow
painted bright red with a golden dragon
flying right across it made himself
comfortable and began slowly to smoke
the vapour reclining more and more onto
the pillow his eyes growing heavy and still
and he began to dream smiling singing
gently into himself into his own mind
and then he thought of his dead wife
and was full of the fresh sorrow of
the old grief and then he thought of
Daniel san and then he finally he thought
of nothing and watched the smoke
rising slowly like a dragon in the afternoon