revelation—
seven pink chrysanthemums
at the temple door

Suddenly, I see pomegranates. Walking the path beyond the Jizō statues, walking past the graveyard, I see the mature fruits’ red-mottled skins ahead of me. Some pomegranates’ fleshy insides—smashed wide open—spill seeds of bright blood-red all over the ground. Others’ heavy dangles labor long branches, awaiting deliverance.

Here, Wako-ji Buddhist temple’s walls hold back Osaka’s encroaching steel and hum as if to blot out the city’s enormous profanity and surround something that’s still sacred within.

a moth sipping toad lilies—
ripe pomegranates
dropping to the ground

I watch as sparrow beaks pick at and eat from pomegranates’ glistening splits. Their red wombs, oozing as if they had participated in some cosmic event, some great sacrifice, bursting and birthing, surrendering and opening to grace when they hit the pavement. I witness red seeds filling the bellies of birds, launching them as harbingers of eternity, heralding beauty to diffuse on northern soils.

open, birthing seeds
a fallen pomegranate—
how blue the sky

Sydney Solis

is an American visual, literary, and performing artist. Her award-winning poetry has appeared in The Haibun Journal, The Caribbean Writer, Shambhala Times, and more. She is a world traveler whose articles and award-winning photographs have appeared in Kyoto Journal, Kansai Scene Magazine, Depth Insights Journal, and the Orlando Sentinel. She has taught writing, yoga, and memoir at Lighthouse Writers Workshops in Denver and online.

Author’s website: https://sydneysolis.com