FLOW

FLOW

When Death is the only witness of our life

Ascension spirals us out…

When the heart broken twice is one time too many

And endings outnumber beginnings,

I lose myself to miracles as nothing else is left

I live on, despite the self that splits to center

Touching the heart & pirouetting away.

A song lifts me out of the mortal coil

That figure eight: love in, life out

Life in, love out

When friends are all I find

Tho the world is built on power, sneer & snark…

I have arrived, so I set off with myself.

I practice the practical, which none but a poet understands.

Lost in the momentary darkness, found next morning

My dreams the delivery system to rise on a new beach

Sprung from chaos;

Suddenly appearing on my Path.

= = = = =

FLOW II

The fickle words gang up behind my tongue

A shoal of fish, slippery, of single mind.

(I may miss the one caught by the cat to feed the dog.)

Will I miss my Grand Awakening

For a cough from the balcony?

Strive me to memory, slave me to miracles.

Let me not miss my Calling

As the voices fade farther away

Until all I hear is sunlight’s synesthesia

Moonlight’s golden smell overtaking the saints’ perfumes

And among these, no longer striving or sneering

But being, becoming, building, breaking.

These are not mine: your sins you may bear alone

My crucifixion is for no man’s gain

No bishop’s jest!

My subjugations no one’s conjugations

I bear up well under all pressures but my own

I tolerate the barest impositions:

A pointed finger is a battle cry I’ll not ignore

As much as I prefer peace in the valley.

Jesus bled & wept & roared His laughter

Whispered His truth into only those ears hearing

The hairsbreadth space between It & Being

There always being that split, that rendering.

Charred remains of truth, burnt for poking with branches,

Flying off edges, sparking from campfire stones

Into campfire stories.

The morals & morés  tangled unutterably together

Til the places you wanted to go wind up being the places you’ve already been.

I draw no hieroglyphics: let them remember or stay unaware. Unwary

Unsurprised & only faithless with the future planned so far & long ago.

My poems drag dragon’s tails across the land

Leviathan mumbles cutting new crevasses

Bald & tasteless Chinese fortune cookies,

Secrets from the hearts of non-thinkers.

I have stood here bare-naked

Until no one notices me anymore.

Carol Borsello  1 / 2025