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Day Time

by Edward Ahern

Day dims into night
Night pales into unknown day
Has anything changed?
All appears as it had been
But yesterday is foreign
And tomorrow is alien

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Author’s note: The bussokusekika is an obscure Japanese poetic form. A predecessor of the waka, it has six lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, 7 syllables. It is used to praise Buddha and warn of the impermanence of life.