Beso the Donkey

Beso the Donkey
lives out his days in a small pasture.
He appears stoic in the rain
and stands still
beneath the merciless sun.
You could almost believe that a rock
to eat, dust to drink,
are all that he needs.
You would be more wrong
than the one who named him Beso
thinking that the kiss he gave
for a sliver of apple
was love.

Beso Attends

The waxing moon
bends its bow toward
Venus in the west.

Beso carries the stars
on his back
and one in each eye.

Crickets fill the soft
night air
with love songs.

When they suddenly stop
he startles and fully
attends to why.

Where Beso

Night is sheer, generous, a galaxy
drains into the eye of a mouse
without hoping for more.

Beso lives with sun, moon,
no moon, just beyond my grasp.

A killdeer says that my mind is puny,
miserly, forgetful—
the richest man in the world
afraid to give a nickel.

Among owls, wind, the eye of Taurus,
I am the only thing that does not
know where Beso is tonight.