Two Rocks Are Speechless. Poem by RIC BASTASA

Buddha
you sit there
the usual silence
lovelier
always lovelier
ever
to the utmost
solitude

i am incensed.
i keep on burning
with a flicker and
then i thin out
until all the smoke in
me is consumed
by air
that permeates the
whole empty body
of this room

this is my sweetest
loss

i empty myself so
that i will be gone
into nothingness
so that i can be
an incense again in
my own
sacred place of
silence

with Buddha beside me
two rocks are speechless.