Poem Of The Month: November 2013

Dōji: A Blunder

1. Shuten-Dōji: a mythical Japanese demon leader.

2. doji n. a stock-trading session in which the opening

and closing prices are (nearly) the same.

From the Japanese dōji

a blunder; a blunderer; a fool or foolish thing.’

DŌJI’S PUPPET

Dōji truffled out a corpse;

he knew nothing

of limbs, of lungs, of brain.

He saw a puppet,

so Dōji picked at the stuffing

and pawed out innards

onto the soil.

Mud was formed

from thick remnants of bladder-spill

and intestinal slop.

The earth grew warm from the foraging.

Dōji poked his head into the shell

and laughed;

the rain came, as Dōji pecked and clawed,

fitting the skin over him.

He could breathe,

he could move,

he was dry and could not be seen.

Dōji kajawed;

he had found a new game.