For centuries, an order of Japanese monks 
chose one of the elders to deliver prayers 
to the island of an important Bodhisattva. They set 
the elect adrift in a shrine shaped like a coffin 

with a month of salted fish, rice crackers & water 
while brothers on shore kept watch for signs of panic. 
In many cases, the sacrifice tried to row home 
but the others turned him, shoved him back 

into the sea. A mirror of human existence: 
each of us sent to beg forgiveness from whichever 
gods we recognize while death patiently paces 
the sky. As darkness swallows the world, imagine

the cry of gulls, glimpses of a distant horizon, 
the slow groan of the casket atop the waves.