2025 NaPM 13 April

[dukealien]

Sound of Zither


              So
          after Red
    Guards exterminated
China’s traditional mountain-
dwelling              hermits
the Party          reinstated
them as             a sort of
care-takers,       reenactors
for the               sake of
tourism,              culture
and so forth.        They are
otherwise             free to
pray and             meditate
unlike young     Chinese whom
the Party      criticizes for
“lying                prone.”
  Young wind-gnarled pines
     sprout amid rocks
        and severed
           roots.

[Form:  Shape poem]