(Grafton Peace Pagoda)
The trees are listening
the Indian says, & I hear
their rustling speech
scattering their leaves like
the monks’ paper cut-outs
tossed to the Buddha’s
8 directions — the paper
that was once trees with
leaves like future cut-outs.

DAN WILCOX is the host of the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany, N.Y. and is a member of the poetry performance group "3 Guys from Albany”. His book of poems “Gloucester Notes” is available from FootHills Publishing. He is an active member of Veterans For Peace.