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“the jayhawk plateau” by w v sutra



the deadly mixture of green and black bile

swamped the poor ailing liver in dark humours

doing the damage bringing fear and death

it was not for lack of meditation

nor of devil may caring

nor of gaiety and cult value

nor of pop notoriety


his friends remembered

how he wandered the midwestern prairie

how he sang how he went naked

how the guys down at the sunoco station

cracked jokes when he used the payphone

calling home and the lover he missed

his clothes fitting badly always

the pants forever slipping down

old button down shirts

left over from his straight days


he later sported a garland of skull shaped flowers

set off by a necklace of diamond teeth

and he could sing a long song now a dying art

to sing while dying having had it all

to have had it all and still be dying

hey like a fool like an old singer hey ho

the crowd of old friends he loved to join

yes and his intimates to whom he listened

groveling in deep gossip

wishing things could be otherwise


and the press loved him

to him they were kind it is said

he might speak of dharma and drop

a happy sutra or share a bit of doggerel

careful to keep his clothes on in the studio

even when tripping bullets

speaking often of kindness

in the depths of karma

hoping always for another party

where he might unbutton

but with never a tattoo never a piercing


never having lived to see the hated war

forgotten even by both sides now

in a frame of new necessities

who can now be kind and to what end


the sunny plateau rolls ever on

kissed by the feet of the questing fauna

grasslands shimmering in the eyes of birds

now the domain of the banks

and the manifest destiny of debt

the blood of violence has slaked these lands

as we approach the thirsty suburbs of wichita




w v sutra was born in Africa and raised in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, borne hither and thither on the surging tides of cold war and soft power. He has been at various times a rock musician, a public health professional, and an educator. He began writing poetry during the Covid-19 lockdown. His work can be found in various online journals and at wvsutra.com . He lives and works on a horse farm on the shoulders of the Holston Mountains in East Tennessee.

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