4. Tu Di

So gray, I did not recall the color of worn stone, or ancestry,

how the red is against it.

The angles of this house resist my pointed family's announcements;

wishes and unspoken needs curl around the courtyard on a note of air, blown

centuries ago across a bone hole, blocked from others, taking the shape

of decision from hands and breath that

stirs and sheds our skins off the courtyard path and leaves;

us hanging on the vermillion

door, where life knocks with invisible limbs, the primogenitor of my kite,

entering from the South East gate,

hungry for my silken story, says

nothing of great walls, only

wide open

spaces and the speed

of a wind horse.

---

Tu Di - in Mandarin this means ‘Ground’

In shamanistic traditions of East Asia, the Wind Horse represents the human soul. It is representative of good-fortune and well-being in Tibetan Buddhism. The wind is a horse upon which the mind rides.