Poem: Changes 54/Marrying Maiden

1

Thunder over the lake—
We understand the transitory

All too well

In light of the eternity of the end
Thunder stirs the lake's water
Which follows it in shimmering waves

Like a woman tracks her man
If we drift along we come together

And part as the day determines

2

A husband and wife can work together

Like a pair of eyes
But the one-eyed man is able to see

3
The woman holds the basket but there is no fruit
The man stabs the sheep but no blood flows
The sacrifice to ancestors and harvest offerings

Are superficial
The woman holds the empty basket
The man stabs a slaughtered sheep—

Just to preserve the forms
A soulless cleaving to the rules
In a marriage built on sand.

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