The Zen Buddhist Monk’s Feet (haiku)

The Buddhist monk’s feet?
Exceptionally clean
Bottoms most of all

I wanted to ask
While he drank his tea after
If he worried ever

About pedicures
Or let his feet be his feet
Even if the soles

Were rough and sooty
And the whole zendo gossiped
About where he’d walked

The rough illusion:
Crane white soles are holier
Than earth-dirty soles

The reality:
Shea butter socks overnight
No one’s the wiser.

-M. Ashley

I went to my first dharma talk today.

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