Warrior, cheap
and slightly used
(experienced).
Will battle weeks
for roomful of applause,
months for trophies.
(Certificates negotiable.)
Have guts will travel.
Will risk (rest of) life
to have name blazed
on bridge or highway.
Eager mission, trained
and fueled, waits
only to be stamped
with purpose.
CODES
I. EGO'S
To be...
is not the
question for me.
Becoming directs each
movement I make. Tomorrow,
I swear, as my Self I flee,
I'll be smarter,
faster, better
than me.
II. SOUL'S
Dash,
ellipsis
synchronize
with flashing
hands, eyes, chin,
desperate signals
to someone: Break
this code I send
and fear
to know
alone.
Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly. Then he woke not
sure he was a man who'd dreamt he'd been a butterfly or was
now a butterfly dreaming he was a man.
- Chuang Tzu, 4th Century B.C.
I row merrily, merrily, merrily
down a stream of consciousness,
ask the sky if I am Ego or a butterfly
wondering Who am I?
I ship my oars, declare Who cares
if I am Ego or an insect dreaming
she's a man? Being is the real thing,
not the kind of eye or wing.
I've heard men swear insects
have no minds- and butterflies reply
their brains are sized so perfectly
there's no room left for Ego's crippled
consciousness.
Like flowers, boulders, feathered pens,
they're more alive than split-brained men.
Aha, I've been Ego all along!
Who else would think to ask the sky
so utter man-self consciously?
And with a spindly grin I tiptoe
to the gunwale, flutter off to shore.
|