They say he was a master of holiness
and could heal the broken
with the palm of his hand
reaching across the
impenetrable nothing

and a carpenter
chipping fallow wood
from the centers of
the heaviest most disparate
trees - hollowing out the
souls of trunks
to make bowls of rice

and a fisherman
laying the nets
reeling them in,
silver and gold
wriggling octopi or purple crappie
or large green-mouthed bass

and a cook
roasting salmon in a fire by the sea
for his friends
feeding them succulent ornamental
bellies of fish
which they devoured entire,
down to the last white
supplicant bone.