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| Image from a Japanese scroll describing the realm of the hungry ghosts and how to placate them. Currently housed at the Kyoto National Museum, artist unknown. see wiki |
IN THE ABSENCE OF ICHOR
A March tree
recognizes
a time of need.
recognizes
a time of need.
Like a family tree with
hungry ghosts hunting
branches missing apple
and golden ichor. In a time of
need, each familial branch
is like a weapon;
horses circle hungry, too
as if color alone invokes
dead, dread and promise.
This year March ghosts rally
the country like horses
circling a tree.
Each branch of the tree
hungry for spring nectar
misses ichor and apple.
Starving ghosts haunt cities
living on ire which may be
why
people
look so hungry for blood
this year
©2016 Hungry Ghosts stephanie pope mythopoetry.com
notes
Hungry Ghost is a concept in Chinese Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way. The term 餓鬼 èguǐ, literally "hungry ghost", is the Chinese translation of the term preta in Buddhism. see wiki
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