At the Clear Pool at Yangleshod

Leaves flutter,

   (feeling like fall),

as a young man takes a bath in his underwear,  repeatedly dunks into freezing water, 

washes his socks with a bar of soap on the concrete step;

the cave “priest”—still in street clothes (before having changed into his thin white lungi) vigorously finger-brushes his teeth.

A woman throws huge handfuls of what looks like mud,  

in to the koi, they swarm.

And the ngakpa K and I saw sitting in the field,

     takes his small bird off his shoulder,

          dips it in the water before putting it back in place,

              climbs the stairs to the gonpa.

Every few steps,

    the bird falls.

He patiently picks it up,

    replaces it.