Take off your shoes
at the door; socks
may be kept on.
Eat with your right
hand, clean yourself
with the left.
One nostril may be
pinched shut to guide
the breath out the other.
Imagine a sphere of light
traveling up from the soles
of your feet to the crown
of your head. What gives you
a raft of tribulations
may give you some more.
Before you step off
an edge, let birds fix
a string to your wrist.
Before you dig for stones
of forgiveness, let the rain
show you what is clean.
This is a perfect coda to the Chinese martial arts film I just finished watching on Netflix.(I’m sure you didn’t have that in mind when you wrote it—just an example of the sort of thing a reader might bring to a poem!)