“Like Fate, Like Fortune”
Theodore Bai
Like a child in the dark, counting stars till dawn,
like a hummingbird that tends to every flower
yet gives its heart to one lone honeysuckle;
like a hero coming home in glory, born to be beloved;
like fate, like fortune,
like every letter and every prayer in the turning sky
speaking its own long soliloquy;
like the butcher who sets down his blade, repents,
and in that instant stands a Buddha;
like stitching all the cracks along the road
into something shaped like a river of stars,
so the wandering sails can see the outline of light—
it’s alright, it’s alright;
please let me invite all things
to meet again in the wide, wild sea.