Hari B Khalsa

THE RINPOCHE SAYS

The Rinpoche says smile at fear

That makes me angry

In the bath I scrunch to fit

Warm water over my thighs

Low on potassium in the bloodwork

Is that why I sleep all day

At Target I self-checkout

Two tubes of lip butter six rolls TP

Good and bad bad and good

No green meadow to lie down in

I’m confused about my confusion

Does that even make sense

Naked between flannel sheets

The massage went 45 minutes over

Always considered myself sensible

Changing my opinion about that

No prediction of rain

It came anyway

Hari B Khalsa grew up in a small town in Oregon and moved to Southern California in 1976, living in Orange County for two years, before moving to Los Angeles, where she and her husband partner in running a wholistic chiropractic practice. She is late-comer to poetry, returning to school to complete her B.A. in Creative Writing in 2005. Her poems have been published in over fifty journals. She is the author of a chapbook, Life in Two Parts (Main Street Rag, 2010) and a book of poems, Talk of Snow (Walrus, 2015). Her award-winning chapbook, She Speaks to the Birds at Night While They Sleep, published by Tebot Bach, was released summer, 2021... Full Profile