Dead Dog's Jaw

I read Ko Un today
       the news of flowers
       eases the poverty of this world*

still
even as I walk the town
to chase the shivers through my skin
I feel like a dead dog’s jaw

slowly
season after season
days of rain after days of rain
it sinks between the thorn bush roots
deaf in its own slow winter
even to the blackbirds scratching
in last year’s leaves above

you could say I do to time
what a bone white glacier does
flatten out the land beneath it
holding back the centuries
in my dog’s jaw sleep

but today I think
I heard the warm flesh sutra
it reaches that deep down

along the train embankment
the world flows through the apple blossom
       all of it
       one stamen at a time

*) Ko Un, The News of Flowers
Note: some edits since first posted, thanks DB, JTS.