Three thousand kneelers
downtown, found wrapped
in browning dust and mars mud,
still portraying their sanctions
for honor, calm, or worse:
for eternity—to last, in serenity,
until the last bead of destitute tissue
washes up on the pavement,
until passersby reach towards
chipping, cupped hands and feel
history, not infinity
as the clay men had wished for.
In 2012, Chinese archaeologists uncovered three thousand sculptures of the Buddha buried under a riverbed in the village of Bei Wuzhuang, Hebei Province.
