Megan Eaves

flying apsaras of mogao
circling around sakyamuni
with music, dune-curved dances
scarves floating round their waists
never touching fairy skin-to-silk,
a lotus flower, legs crossed, sublime.
i get lost in the language
sinuous
like sand, smooth,
as if water were
cast in time.
the sun crests hot
and dry through dust and smoke from
nearby factories
then fades into a watercolour of peach, brown
then green-blue
now an azure empyrean heaven
sand mountains outlines of where we can’t go
the taklamakan wilds, the qilian shan feeding
dry riverbeds here
with bursts of mudgush come spring.
red lanterns, orange LEDs on a hotel to the west
reminders of this life
and those that came before.