Kshitigarbha

 

Kshitigarbha, bodhisattva,

‘matrix of earth, or

he who encompasses the earth,’

who stands

 

he who stands, and is not daunted

he who stands, and unsupported

supports; who unsupported is

‘the truly supported thing;’ who, unsupported,

is

 

Kshitigarbha, whose beautiful name

clothes him, to English ears, in shit

(he doesn’t mind, he

stands)

 

who stands at the roads

from nowhere to nowhere

at the ends of the earth, who is

matrix of earth,

who is

 

who stands it, who stands within, without

through, beyond

inside and under

the Hell Realms; who, understanding,

stands

 

who wears a monk’s robes, who wears, as Jizo,

the clothes of dead children in Japanese cemeteries;

who wears the weight

of utter absence,

who wears the loss,

who is

 

who is and stands

who is and stands.

 

Clair Mullineaux