DRIFTWOOD (EXCERPT)

3

The moment an eagle swoops down
Out of the sky above a river valley and
Seizes
A diaphanous layer of moonlight from the water’s surface
Time is silenced
As our tale unfolds

Once we swim upstream from the sea
The Adam’s River becomes eloquently mute
The grassy banks dreary
The fog harder to control than ever imagined
So pale the morning
Changing by afternoon, speech slurred
The turbulent waters are gone
The river gradually grows colder
Leaves fall
Autumn floats and sinks
The water’s words
Sputter on dangerous shoals
The fallen leaves are silent as autumn sheds tears
There’s absolutely no need for such classical cruelty
The road extends to the horizon
Precipices and plains are all part of the course
In the great wave of Change
There is no need for joy or sorrow
And even less need to stubbornly insist that
I’m just a bubble amid Change
Fear is unnecessary
Anger is unnecessary
Excessive concern is unnecessary
Living for a philosophy or death
Also Unnecessary
God exists in the breaths we take
And in the
Breathing of a
Blood-gorged louse
Reverence is unncessary
Excessive faith is like extra flesh
Piety is unnecessary
Before constructing the garden of life
We were choked
With all sorts of poisonous weeds
And God
Was silent
Our only enemy is time
Before the dream is done
The course of life is run
A plume of smoke
Rises into an empty sky
Silently disperses
Vanishing into a greater nirvana
To deny illness   unnecessary
To prevent fading and ageing   unnecessary
To cling it is said is more toxic yet
And, of course, unnecessary
To sift   unnecessary
To be sifted also unnecessary
Open-mindedness   unnecessary
Transcendence   unnecessary
Demons, good and bad, all unnecessary
The Buddha plucking a flower and smiling   unnecessary
A short life
Spent looking for the key
Entirely unnecessary
The door    let it hang open
The clouds    let them float by

DRIFTWOOD (EXCERPT)

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