Dale Champlin, Arms Up, Collage, 2021
AT THE AGE OF 80
At the age of 80,
suddenly ill after eating a delicacy,
the Buddha was about to pass.
He assured his host the cause was natural,
nothing to do with the food.
His disciples gathered
under the moon,
he asked them not to grieve.
Impermanence is natural,
coming together inevitably means coming apart.
Two thousand three hundred
ninety-six years later,
my father and my aunt
sat beside my grandfather,
watched him die at 80,
listened until he couldn’t speak.
_________________________
William Dolben