twentyfour
parasitic,
they seem, said the abbot, hands behind back, rising forward and up,
up on his toes, then down to his heels and up again, to rise above
the hoi polloi ... how nebulous, how fragile these webs that join us
to family and friends, offered the professor, and more tenuous still
to those just passing; rather something less than parasitic, i
think, i do ... and later, master ko, sitting still and silent on
his lumpy futon, a vacant storage shed now home, one pine shelf with
tin cup, and mia's gift, dawg coming and going, aren't we all
parasitic, getting our rice and pickles at some other's expense, yes,
maybe so, but too pejorative, that, too judgmental ... slight shake
of head, then, donne's poem, no man insular, each man's death ...
did shakespeare know him? and chinese fellow, lao dan, 2000 years
before that, too many names, too many labels, too much this and that,
splitting hairs into them and us, us and them, how
nebulous, how fragile these contentious distinctions
NOTES:
hoi
polloi: a Greek expression which literally means the people, but has
taken on a negative connotation referring to the so-called unwashed
masses
Lao
Dan (or Lao Tze): purported author of Tao Te Ching
Metempsychosis
He hunts
not fish, but as an officer,
Stays in his court, as his own net,
and there
All suitors of all sorts themselves enthral;
So on
his back lies this whale wantoning,
And in his gulf-like throat,
sucks everything
That passeth near.
John
Donne (1572 - 1631)
(Shakespeare
1564 - 1616)