mara

Mara works at Office Depot as a check-out clerk.
She has long black hair that she wears on top of
her head in two knobs; her long bangs drape over
her forehead. She is tall but slender, and olively
complected; she comes from somewhere south
of here.

Mara is the demon who tempted Gautama Buddha,
trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women.
She is the embodiment of all unskillful emotions.
She is the goddess of death, but plainly, she
really exists.

Buddha sits with his left hand in his lap, palm
facing upwards, and his right hand on his right knee.
The fingers of his right hand touch the earth, to call the
earth as his witness in defying Mara and achieving
enlightenment.

If you kill your parents, you repent before Buddha.
If you kill Buddha, where do you repent?
What festivals of atonement, what sacred games
can we invent?