For my Wife

On      a
journey            away
from you         to
a          far       away
place       from       you
I admire          your
magpie-packing and
insistence to see
the unforeseen         you
saved me from shabbiness
of appearance
and the fate forced me
to face the reality
in that scholarly assemblage
of Yu
 
where I travelled to be
better than
myself to be
face to face
with my self
stripped of abundance
I have been used to
where
you were
within me:

the tranquil face
of a Buddha
in Dazu

Yu: the local name of Chongqing
Dazu: Dazu County (160 km to the west of Chongqing) in Sichuan Province in China famous for carved stone figures relating mainly to Buddhism.