LAO-TZU

“To be worn out is to be renewed.”
Lao-tzu, the Way of Lao-tzu

Every day we walk slowly down the stairs to the edge
of what is not there, and when we arrive, we build nothing
out of the righteous quips of those who make it too easy
to tell the stories of life, liberty and then a forged self.

Lao-Tzu said "He who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know."

I recall answers that were broken down and forgotten
unless I tripped easily over them, kicked out of the way
and find miracles that they harbor inside with your signs
held above your head to signal to the chorus when to sing.

Why must you carry directions for all of life in your pockets
filled with pens, dirty post cards; naked women with fine minds.

Oh, you lie so well, my other self. Say it. You love females
and their soft yielding skin even when they forget you, and
their flesh does not offer itself without some vulgar cost met.

I am not talking about money. I speak about time and spending
it with your lover watching her design a painting of her troubadour.

Finally, we step to the edge of the street and count all the faces
twisted with tired eyes now renewed again by simple faith
in the renewal of spring time when the crocus wins its battle
with the soil, the mountain and the too warm air that wilts
the leaves and sends us to the river for another bucket of mud
and water to feed the birds as they twitter with Klee in perpetual
dances riding the upper drafts of the thermals towards revival.

 

4-25-06