The World of Blue Dust

When we get to the edge of the cosmos
Maybe we’ll see how really fake it is.
The existence of an edge will prove it.

Lacking any good evidence, I think
I would prefer not to pretend either
That there is an edge or that there isn’t.

I may begin to avoid using terms
Implying one or the other, such as
Finite and infinite. Indefinite

Centers my new basin of attraction.
I’ll let my thoughts spin their rosettes in it.
I saw an unusual translation

Of Tao Yuanming’s famous phrase, “luo chen wang,”
Usually appearing in English as,
“I fell into the dusty snares,” or, “net”

(A phrase that may have been a snarky dig
At public office, since that phrase was used
In a Confucian treatise by Fan Ning

But otherwise unknown before Tao’s poem),
In this case rendered as, “I fell into
The world of red dust.” I have no idea

If there’s a good argument to be made
For this alternate translation—I’m not
Able to read Mandarin. Nonetheless,

I was caught by that surprise adjective
And wondered about the colors of dust—
Grey, brown, yellow, red, ochre, beige, and black.

If Tao Yuanming had specified green dust
Or blue, anyone, I think, would have thought
He had in mind some unnatural hue—

Not snares or nets of civic dust kicked up
On the busy streets of the capital,
But some artificial, tinctured powder,

Part of the pharmakon of alchemists,
Or part of a courtesan’s make-up kit,
Or part of the net of the infinite.