Novice

.The banks are ragged
                                           and bare
wintered
with gray canes
round
                scattered stones

Ahgreyeuss
walks along the muddy creek
thinking
he has been here before

brown water
             silty
rain

A structure           looms
above the creek
in the vapor distance
wooden                             
                               brown
                        a long roof over a calm
pool

In the water
beneath the structure
there are brown-robed
monks
from the east
in a crew boat
gliding

Ahgreyeuss wades out
to join them
and they reluctantly accept him
but when he tries to enter the boat
he upsets it
nearly to sinking

and he doesn’t think
they will ever let him

try again