Twin Giants

(In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed with dynamite the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan)

 

After the heavy silence, a breath suspended

Gasped in the valley.

Then earth erupted,

Kush shuddered, shook,

Shell-shocked, vanquished,

Its gashed flank bled.

 

Gigantic holiness exploded, sattva streamed

Down mountain’s edge.

Lips of the tranquil smile, now blown apart,

Tumbled on hard, dry earth.

Those heavy-lidded eyes, crossed limbs,

Torn open, smashed to dust.

 

Twin Buddhas, squeezed dead in the fist,

Fanatic fist, killed by the cold, hard eye,

Found Nirvana as they seethed through air

Then slumped to rubble.  Those pedestals

(Keenly offered, cash offered) stand empty

In Metropolitan halls.

 

The revolution of the world is half-way through

Its turning year.  A bright gold morning

Smiles.  September.  Again the earth

Explodes.

The twin gods of the west

Bend at the knees

And crumble

Into dust.