' There is a Lake '...

There is a lake so tiny
that a mustard seed would cover it
easily, yet everyone drinks from this lake.

Deer, jackals, rhinoceroses, and sea elephants
keep falling into it, falling and dissolving
almost before they have time to be born.



- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992