Counterparts

If you cannot pray or have forgotten
how to pray, you can ask one of the temple

clerics to do it for you. You can write it down
on a slip of paper, and as you hold a palm-

ful of incense sticks, she will mediate.
Walk to the front where others have lain

offerings of fruit and flowers, where fingers
of smoke from flickering candles link

hands with those of your dead in the life
beyond. After the rain, the hills soften 

from brown to almost green. Spears of light 
shingle rooftops with amber. In some countries,

there are only two kinds of seasons, 
each one the other's lost sock or glove.