Emaciated Buddha

fireworks rupture the temple on the hill’s
serenity the interior’s panorama suffocated
by a buddhist vision of hell flavoured with
more than a dash of hindu horror – here’s
a massacre of men & women sawn in half
by grinning & willing fellow men & women
here’s old buddha himself count his ribs
this is before he discovers the middle
path still there are thousands of hungry
children in the buddhist world – more than
a thousand monks & nuns forced to cross
the burmese border in search of alms –
they are all still hungry – count their ribs