Wonder and desire are how the self changes
          into the camouflage of everything.
           —Jack Myers

And so it is these unhidden wrens cry their high pitches
from the stark branches of a winter maple.

Even if I did revisit the past,
what could I change that wouldn’t unravel
the cloth of who I need to be?

When, before the bells of wisdom and compassion chimed,
Buddha was asked why there was no self,
his answer disappeared into silence.

If I were to speak out now,
the one who would listen is gone,
and the self I am not is the sound of an echo
after the bells have been struck.