"A Welcome Break from Eternity" - Alx Johns
The monastery dared gravity leaning off the cliff.
The building itself
was an act of faith,
tree-limb triangles
supporting floors and walls
floor pallets, pots and pans,
manuscripts, relics, and
some men,accessible only
by a miserable, many-mile
trek up a never-ending incline
in the never-blind blazing sun;
or god forbid the ropes
hanging like petrified tears
down the crags to the rocky
coast a mile below. Having
opted for the former, I stood
breathless and sweating
in the entry way for
what seemed like
forever before a figure finally
descended the stairs,
seemed to float
with ghost grace,
a black robe broken
only by gauzy whisps
of beard. He smiled
for too long, then observed,
“You are American. I lived in America many, many
years in the past. How did things work out for that Richard Nixon guy?”
(photo by David Noah, 2013)
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