AN ARGUMENT
Stuffed with sea bass and rice wine
half a mile above the thoughtless Pacific,
he listened to lizards
scuttling in the rocks and yellow grass.
A slim, wind shaped laurel curved over him.
All afternoon he tracked its shadow over stone
to a question that came suddenly
as sea-turned sunlight interrupted
by the shadow of a hawk.
If he stayed there
staring out to sea,
how could they call him
a failure and fool?