Restless

        Strange. This is such a dark place.
        Perfect and unknown;
        it produces nothing.
        The true self is nobody.

        I see her.
        Let us stand naked.
        "I am told the turtle river
        is a sacred place."
        She laughs.

        "A tortoise offered
        by a prince.
        Wrapped in silk,
        venerated on an altar
        in a precious shrine."

        She kisses me:
        "It is better to leave
          a sacred shell,
          than lose one kiss."
        A cloud of incense rises.

        Three thousand years ago
        two lovers embraced.
        A prince pierced them
        with his bamboo pole.

        The tortoise river
        filled with blood.
        A prince's anger
        turned to sorrow.
       
        A tortoise temple
        with a prescious shell
        was offered and blessed.
        A prince's sorrow in
        an empty shell.

      ~~~
        <^>