The Medicine Lies Within
(the shadow speaks: And this is what I have come to hear in this conversation between one and oneself)
as I understand it…
there is a fire between us.
the self.
words slipping off my tongue like turpentine
cause little explosions of white hot pain, of confusion, of endless
separations.
and now
we are left with a devastatingly quiet
holy smoke to stumble through.
there is not enough breath between us to make it out alive.
so we drop to the ground,
becoming that horizontal line where earth and sky meet.
orange flames licking the sky…
engulfing the last blue of dusk.
this is a place of imperfect beauty.
this is a place, if ever there was one, of forgiveness…
this is a place
that we can, at long last, lay our s(words)
to rest
and return home to our beautiful oceanic selves.
The Medicine Lies Within
(the heart answers…)
Stars take their sacred place.
You lean deep into the canyon,
searching for your heart.
Surely, it is still here.
Surely, you remember what it is
to love yourself.
You spin backwards in time,
tumbling through star-held darkness.
You left your tired questions here
the night you spoke aloud
of self-doubt, ego-death, body-tension.
Your heart…
covered with a dusting of bones
and elegant failings polished smooth.
You look up
as the stars
become your quiet hope.
Climbing down into the canyon
you lift up your heart with weathered hands,
covered with white earth and dreams.
If you do not love you, who will…?
Who can?
Surely, within the weight of this knowledge
lies your medicine.
It is a necessary remembering
of bones of dust of stars
of forgiving yourself
for all the ways in which you withheld
your love from your self
as if you were the sky…
refusing the tilt of the earth.
