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Haiku for a Locked Temple
© 1997 Kitty Costello
- We come for last prayers,
- our few possessions in hand,
- find temple doors locked.
-
- No one worships here.
- Now even our gods scare them,
- trapped like ghosts inside.
-
- Keep safe this temple.
- Our faith no shield from terror,
- yet not abandoned.
-
- The gods may find us
- locked within prisons of shame,
- our priest hauled away.
-
- Prayer beads pass his hands,
- trace the unbroken circle
- Life is suffering.
-
- If passersby ask
- where we have gone tell them to--
- ask the government.
-
- Our roots are unearthed
- by hands unseen, wrenched up with
- clumps of dirt dangling.
-
- Prayer is set loose.
- Offerings fill the passing winds
- from temples within.
-
- Dreamers dream beyond
- clack of train wheels through far lands.
- Stillness in motion.
-
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