Sandal Wood

The smell of sandal wood and I am gone to some far off land
where I belong, that home I’ve never had or known
at least that I remember, if I could live it all again
I would have found a way to be that hermit
in the kakemono I saw in the Freer,
with the three legged toad
on his back
traversing
the mountain pass
early in the mist or morning
in Japan where I was born never
to return, it seems I have been banished
from most of my past except for what money
can buy me back from time to time on short trips
decades apart how strange it is to pass by the houses
where I once lived and have no key to get in and remember
the faces and conversations I had in those places with those
who have since become dearly departed how simple it can be
to grab a few moments of fleeting happiness, be like the rainbow
says Amachi who cried when she hugged me god only knows what
she read in the tea leaves in my head I’m orbiting the moon now looking
for the rocket ship’s return that brought me here to this dark cold solitude