A Thousand Lifetimes of Love Across the Divide

The road lay dim and lifeless.

The river flowed in silence, as if it had never run at all.

No grass, no flowers, only the lonely path on the far shore, forever wordless.

The Looking-Back Terrace, Meng Po’s Soup: one glance, one solitary drink, an endless plunge into oblivion.

And so some people waited, day after day, year after year, lifetime after lifetime,

there on the far shore,

quietly sinking into despair.