Narcissus and the Buddha

There’s a Song Sparrow who,
inevitably, can be found
among the Crepe Myrtles
which border the west side
of my back drive.

Yet his time there is temporary
at best. He’ll sit and dither a bit,
offer up a few crisp, clear notes,
followed by a dulcet trill, then
fly down and light on my truck.

It’s the bottom edge of the left,
rear-view mirror he favors, where
he perches and studies the image
which appears before him. And
the way he preens and postures,

I’m certain he doesn’t realize
he’s only looking at himself. No,
he seems to be engaged in a
courting ritual, convinced that
he’s found his perfect mate.

Call him Narcissus, if you will,
for he seeks a love which can
never be reciprocated and, in the
end, is doomed to be consumed
by his own blind passion.

            ***

Nearby, a stone Buddha sits in silent
repose. Surrounded by a profusion of
Rudbeckia, Zinnias, Sunflowers, and
Phlox; butterflies and bees worry the
air about him.

Gathering nothing, storing nothing, his
senses tamed, he lives on emptiness. True,
it’s an only an inanimate, carved effigy,
yet even a stone façade cannot cloak
the virtues of the enlightened one.

            ***

And as I sit in the fading afternoon
light, studying this vociferous little
bird, and his silent companion across
the way, I have no doubt as to which of
these two paths my own life is following.

7/9/2020



-Howard Brown 

Howard Brown is a retired attorney who lives with his wife, Ann, on Lookout Mountain, TN.  His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous print and online journals. He has published two books of poetry, "The Gossamer Nature of Random Things" and "Variations in the Perception of Color."