beneath an
ancient-structured stem
by a placid river
the casket waits
interminably –
whole lives
are spent like this,
leave marks upon the land
which are erased
by breaths of a breeze –
yet here the solar lion lays
steely eyes upon the cask –
attends –
and the couriers,
alert to this gaze
respond with ready hands,
towards the expectant handles –
from behind the sinuous
limbs of the stem,
make their moves –
