By Beth Sanchez

Again the loaves and fishes multiply
on this morning with no time for breakfast
the road to Tu Hieu thickly lined with common folk
draped in robes like so many gray doves

We file down the road,
we foreigners we brothers and sisters,
members of one body slow steps deep breaths
soft smiles we are here to show the homeland
that their practice is worth it

We ease past kitchen tables, pulled onto the street
and loaded up with presents here are bags of cooked rice
and mushrooms cheery tangerines leaf swathed sweets
Chinese candies throughout

The old women flash black teeth
their eyes pale with age and memories
of war the babies in silk suits and hands
of all sizes folded at the heart pair after pair after pair
the givers queue as far as the eye can see
they offer the lotus bow and sneak in a dumpling
this one gives a peanut candy,
that one a bean cake another slides round
to slip a box of juice into a sister’s bag

All at once their eyes grow bright something
in the air sings out I turn to look at the river of monks
serenely flowing our teacher flanked by attendants
trying to contain the rush of givers the reverse pickpockets
of his own beloved town

He steps One Small Brown Clog
and then the next a new heart cracked  
open step by monumental step starting with my own

Suddenly everyone is giving everything to everyone
I give a yogurt I get a cake!
I offer a box of milk And a whole meal appears
The fruits are flowing everywhere
The mind of love is here

The smiling nuns are weighted with the fullness
of this love a monk uses his upturned hat
as a receiving vessel he can barely carry the cornucopia
he smiles
he breathes
he walks through the land of milk and honey
wondering
knowing always
that the giver, the receiver,
and the received are one.

Beth A. Sanchez, Seeds of Awakening Sangha, Louisville, Colorado.