Photo by Nongnuch Leelaphasuk on Adobe Stock
Views from the Cushion
(Before Meditating)
Doorway into adjoining room’s debris
boxes blankets pillows piled in childless crib
window fence smokeless chimney lifeless tree
its branches as bleak as a hopeless soul.
(After Meditating)
Doorway into adjoining room and beyond
floor ceiling repurposed crib overflowing
window-frame window weathered wooden fence
pyramid chimney’s rust-colored bricks
leafless tree’s branches hailing hope
like a newborn’s soul or an old soul cleansed
plump solitary raindrop long after the storm
boldly holding onto bare brown branch
clinging clinging ferocious in its fragility.
Passive Aggressive Origin Story
Being a small skinny sensitive introverted
sharp-eyed clear-eared quick-study
obsessively observant five-year-old
...
getting tossed like a rag doll crashing into doors onto floors
...
getting tossed like a rag doll by a loved one
by a malodorous muscular bespectacled hairy giant
but a loved one nonetheless
...
Getting tossed like a rag doll
by an otherwise selfless affectionate
good-humored hard-working patient parent
whose demons of temper and high school-dropout shame
rarely rarely only rarely rear
their gargoyle heads their garlic breath
their gargled roar their vise-grip hands
...
Being a small skinny sensitive introverted
sharp-eyed clear-eared quick-study
obsessively observant five-year-old
getting tossed like a rag doll crashing into doors onto floors
plotting survival strategies
— some same day some years later
...
strategies of cognitive dissonance
serenely holding tenderness & trauma as softly
as a nothing-but-time Zen master subsisting
on nothing but twinkling twinkling little stars of insight
...
strategies of too-clever-by-half sesquipedalian debate
...
strategies of bald-faced bold-faced straight-faced false witness
...
strategies of personal private oh-so-private guerrilla warfare.
X-Ray Yoga Vision
Yesterday’s sun salutation
still salutes shy sun’s oh-so slight slice of light
no matter no matter at all
that day’s done that day’s lain tracks into infinity.
Today’s sun salutation
its secret super power so delightful so insightful
stares straight through plaster ceilings high and low
stares calmly cooly seeing
the unseen sun lambent behind seething overcast.
Tomorrow’s sun salutation
shall lean back way back back bending
breathing stretching stretching breathing
palms pressing raised arms reaching up reaching back
closed eyes seeking rays of hope
closed eyes open greeting rays of joy.