Risk

Outside a coffee shop,
three people look at an x-ray of a spine
on a computer screen.

Slow motion nomadism

We should practice
carrying each other
into burning buildings
without danger.

The most powerful mind-altering agent is patience.

Passing,
an old woman bumps against me;
not a breast--
a pacemaker.

Freedom is the ability to do anything, not merely what I want.

She constructs small stupas
for insects she finds dead
in her apartment or elsewhere.
I saw her save a large black bug
that fell into a red bucket for fire.
Afraid to touch it,
she poured the bug and the water out.

Carry a drop of water to the ocean; wash it clean

A beautiful shadow on a woman's ankle, she said:
"Even though you're working
to save us all, don't become trapped
by seriousness. You must be laughing
to help all beings."



by jerry gordon