Donkey's Ears

It began with relinquishment -

a palm leaf bows before ripples of summer heat

as dust gathers, thick on lips, while eyes, hurt by the glare 

of sun off white concrete, are shielded by the saluting hand - 

first:

small duties morph

into surrendered shadows before the light.

Then:

muscles made useful for a great good

toil though dawn to dusk hours, the weary tongue 

curls around learned chants broken by screams when

a whip bites the unwary bicep.

Feet feel their path to hoof, hoof

pushes against the earth -

both body and planet

move.

Ears grew tufts of hair,

‘The better to hear Your name with.’

The teeth grew thick and blunt,

‘The better to refrain from uttering

the Profane’.

From early to rise

to late to bed;

light not to be wasted

nor mind addled

by useless learning – 'it was knowledge

that first cast us adrift.'

Hands have become little more than tools

and innocent heart beat to the drum:

work for 

the 

greater good

of a name 

that cannot 

be named.

There is the promise that a soul will live on

even as eyes lose the ability

to distinguish colour or

words became so heavy

they drop like lead into the pool

of psyche.

It was a dream that saved them.

An idea unfurled across thick minds -

a blanket

spread on the Spring clothes line

to beat back the dust

that had clouded thought - that drove

cloying incense from the censor.

Censorship in mist and smell

defeated by thought

as if mind had dipped itself

into the waters

of a clean well.

The ears receded into shells,

the river of life whispered words

back into mouths.

A free man

without free will that binds

and commits to an afterlife

while ruining the fruit of the earth.

Free within the time frame

mortality allots.

Free to be shifted by the events -

air currents and rainfall

dislodged by the wings of a butterfly

in the  South American jungle.

Whimsy dizziness spun out

into the air

as lungs expand and deflate/

expand and deflate/

things move on like oxen at the mill

round and round - each step different

and the same.

Young or wizen crust, the mind frolics

even as the muscles collapse.

Geppetto I am home! I am ready to learn

bring me books and voices - the cool logic 

of science and the poet’s bright eyes.

I am home at last.

Saved; ready to die

by living this singular life granted by chance.