Transcendence


I
devour pain
like the sin-eater
consumes the feast,
morsel by morsel until
reaching a set incapacity
with the stabbing, unacceptable realization
that a bandage can't repair severed limbs.

I
tiptoe
to relight
extinguished stars,
to watercolor rainbows
between mental images of black-n-white,
softening the edges of rock-hard belief systems,
reshaping distortions to some semblance
of an undefinable though tangible reality,
biased, but substantially healthier than before.

I
jiggle locks,
rattle cages,
try rusty keys
in frozen locks until
the creaking doors of
trauma-past open wide
to release the darkest secrets
and free the hostage-soul inside.

I
join in a dance,
a cappella, entranced,
eye to eye, what strange intimacy this,
needing only a sojourner's mental embrace.

I
bend
to lift up
human refuse,
yes, human beings thrown away.
Closer inspection reveals the buried treasure
and that treasure is guaranteed to shine n sparkle
in the second someone takes notice, that's what I do.

If
I had a dime
for every tear
that I have witnessed,
I'd be richer than a rich man's wildest dream.
And all these tears could shame a mighty ocean,
an ocean filled with drops of grief, still overflowing
while my heart is sucked out-to-sea in ebb-tide sorrow.

Yet
I am
bestowed
priceless glimpses
of what awaits just beyond,
past the ragged borders of pain and suffering...

I
witness
the gift beyond
the tears and devastation -
the gift of our divine nature
in the act of transcendence.

Copyright 2004, J. Doncaster