Virgin Mary Ghost – August 15

               "the way / I stay / a stone"
               -Morgan Gibson

I add two scoops of Sencha Superior into the unglazed teapot 
from Kyoto, heat the water to 80 degrees C and add 200ml of water 
to the white porcelain teacup with hand-painted indigo landscape
inside. Next, pour the hot water into the teapot and wait one minute. 
As the green tea fills the cup, catch the last three drops for richness. 
It looks like the painted fishermen fish in the tea. A quiet sip on my bench
below my native plants – salvia, bee balm, and sage. It may 
be illegal to witness, but the Virgin Mary ghost reminds, 

A solid stone is resistance. The power of rain covers all stones. 

In devotion, I suture the French wooden rosary with the 
Annunciation in molded metal. I remember a moment in humility 
where a stranger and I connected over the image of Guadelupe. 
We had called on the feminine in the fray of childhood for comfort. 
Our tears of tenderness erase the wounds. Now I use the same tea 
leaves two more times, steeping for ten seconds. I imagine how the 
etheric ghost reads the collapse of leaves left after the pour.