Peter J. Grieco
Peter J. Grieco is former professor of English and retired school bus driver. His poems are widely published in small magazines on line and in print. His blog “At the Musarium and Other Writings” [https://pjgrieco.wordpress.com/] archives much of this work. His collection of ekphrastic verse, “The Bind Man’s Meal,” is available from Finishing Line Press.
THE ZEN OF SELLING
The Zen of selling was told by a Venetian girl:
She used to sell swords in San Marco. She never
sold a shaving mirror, till one day she sold four.
There’s a kind of energy, you see,
the kind that brings us together
this evening, spontaneously. Another
time she was selling expensive bible sets,
for weeks without luck. So she took
an intensive training course. One must learn
to read the dream of each person, her house,
her character, a stray photograph, & convince
her that fulfillment is in what she
is being sold. It worked! She enjoyed
visiting many families, as many as twenty
in a day, reading their dreams. Then
one day a man answered the door
who had been running the vacuum cleaner.
The Venetian girl had always wanted one like that.
No problem, the man’s brother-in-law sells them
door-to-door. She must have one!
It was the Zen of selling.
ZI
Leaves of paper committed to lettering
laborings of scholars & poets
swirls of ink
otherwise discarded
in need of safeguarding against
indignities
such as getting stepped-on
wrapping food, covering jars
patching windows
or put to less mentionable uses
collected & set aside
for ritual burning
