Patty Mooney

Taboo

Our first dawn in India, 3 AM
enroute from the airport,
the driver stops to let us get out
and videotape a puja, electric
gold bulbs blasting faith
high into the night.
In a moment of joy and adrenaline
I kiss my husband, Levon.
Hindus, black clouds
over eyes murmur, approaching
thunder. We hurry back into our bus;
it
lurches forward.

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Instant Karma

Once the bus stops in front of the Kanishka Hotel
I shoulder my back pack and head for the entrance
oblivious to a curb so slim I stumble.
My knees crack cement.
Lips kiss grit.
Levon comes running to save me.
I rise, wounded elephant, limp into hotel
imagining two hours of sleep.
India says kisses are taboo.
What if I do not obey?

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To Visit Buddha

We remove our shoes before treading inside the monastery.
The Maitreya Buddha glows in a ray of light from the ceiling.
Bare breasted, wearing crowns of lotus flowers,
two Goddess Taras, one White, one Green, loom above the altar.
The place is a riot of rainbows, a color photographer's dream.
A young monk in blood red guides us
past a giant cloth prayer wheel suspended from the ceiling,
points at a closed door.
Levon and Slag disappear inside with the camera.
No women allowed. I giggle
tonight when I see the video:
old monk, in spectacles, painting erotic art,
Buddha's graffiti.

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Patty Mooney is a poet living in San Diego. She and her husband own and operate Crystal Pyramid Productions, a corporate and broadcast video production company, and New & Unique Videos, a stock footage library. These poems evolved from an around-the-world journey the couple undertook with their mountain bikes and professional video equipment and parlayed into a multiple-award-winning video called "Full Cycle: A World Odyssey." India yielded a collection of poems which Patty has entitled "Painted Elephants." Her poems have appeared in various publications over the last 25 years, including Red Cedar Review, pif Magazine, Cedar Hill Review, Sage Woman and others.

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