i've lost so many people
to death, ignorance, fear, distance, circumstance
i am terrified at what i still have to lose
i try to drink from the cup as if it's already broken
i try to see my life from the moment of my death
in this sea of lives, washing over the land
we are as indistinguishable as waves in the night
navigating by starlight
those tiny jewels, furnaces of death and life
a beam from an angry star
can touch a leaf or the words deep inside you
i will cultivate a silent flame, in reflection
fanned by my breath, stirred by my motions
i will carry it with me wherever i walk
and its heat will speak as loud as the sky
i will fill every container
dripping, expanding, into the sky and back down as rain
i will carve glyphs on the face of the earth
i will whisper to the grandchildren of the unborn
i will find the center of everything
and see reality wherever it can be found
i will sing with the birds, who know every song
together we can write a book containing all true thoughts
i am an instance, an incarnation, a vessel of spirit
a rod that holds lightning for a fraction of a second
we are all like this, but we close our eyes
i am neither man nor woman, the king of shapelessness
not child nor adult, a blanket in an empty grave
a signpost without letters, i am gone around the corner
i haven't met anyone who would keep up with me
because i never tire, and i do not meet too many people
and i am running straight into the heart of death