w103 assignment 2.1

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

The power of the imagery in Charles Simic’s metaphoric Team Buddha Funny Car is enough to clock a quicker elapsed time from sensory input to inspiration than John Force. The weighty word which widens my eye is Buddhas; with a big B and an s. This is important as it shows that, while still included in the Dharmakaya Ground of Watermelonness, the image is of physical embodiments of Watermelonness as the Sambhogakaya/Nirmanakaya. Simic’s diction shifts the vehicle into S, where the linguistic gears grind out the sounds of Communal Enjoyment as the Dharma Wheels speed Simic’s Funny Car to the syntactical photo finish: with the Buddhas (presumably sitting) “On the [hood of the] fruit stand” enjoying the fruits of standing firm on the Path through lives and lives of drought and impenetrable earth.

In the second lane, when Simic records the jataka tale of the Watermelons pulling up to the christmas tree, it seems to be from the perspective of the assembly, where “We” ‘gaze on the [Watermelons] in astonishment, in amazement, in ecstasy;' where “We eat [up] the smile“ of the ‘Tathagatas, worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, perfect clarity and conduct, well gone, understanding the world, unexcelled worthy, trainers of people, teachers of heavenly and human beings, Buddhas, World Honored Ones;’ and do what? “We… spit out the teeth,” the pearls of Wisdom, so that more Buddhas can grow and sit and inspire. Maybe though we should, every now and then, “eat… the teeth” too and let some of them take root within as well. And if the GI tract isn’t hospitable to their growth the moral fiber couldn’t hurt.