An Ancient Temple on a Leaf

Not a painting
but the patterns of things
etched into the walls.
The wall in my
grandmother's Bronx home
was made like that.
Who knows how old
were those walls. And
the backs of my eyes
are like that sometimes,
illuminated with stray sunlight
making virtual shadows
and glistening when
I dream. And here they are
cut into the surface of the leaf
under my flashlight aimed
like the sun. Ancient palaces
in far away places
as intimately mine as this
lens, as my eyes, and memories,
and dreams.