Good Seeds Gone

Good Seeds Gone
Yong Wan Choi 10.26.07

The male was once a brawler
bullfights with horns raised, cockfights with talons out
because the female had placed her order
to bear splendid young

To take good seed for the ember about to go out
the male who stood up to the very end wore the crown
and dallied with enraptured queens
on the feast day when the queen ant is ripe
he gave his soul and flew up to the very end
planting the last good seed
in the female's body high in the sky
and there were good times, too,
of toasting the lives given in loyalty

Lives falling like leaves were blown off on the wind
new shoots floated up on the river
leading soldiers, bringing court ladies,
they carried on majestic dynasties across wide lands, they say

But from the day the yoke called morality was laid on him
the male with sharp horns and fierce talons
gets along sweetly with his wife, like a butterfly in a flower garden

Yet on nights when the full moon rises
now and then a man's secret heart
seeks the old village of the male king who left good seed
and leading his soldiers off to battle
slips out and back while his wife is asleep