Among the arcane delights in my tiny cottage are a fat file of poetry admired & collected over the years, and another fat collection of photos I’ve taken myself.
Here begin the artistic sandwiches.
————–
What If? – (The Million-and-First Meditation and the Last)
What if we smashed the mirrors
And saw our true face?
What if we left the Sacred Books to the worms
And found our True Mind?
What if we burned the wooden Buddhas?
Gave the stone Buddhas back to the mountains?
Dispersed the gurus with a great laugh
And discovered the path we had always been on?
What if we told the Saviours
We were saved from our first breath
And the healers — If you could heal yourselves
All would be healed?
What if we washed clean of Authority’s ordure
And smelled the fresh smell of our own bodies?
What if, as Eve eating the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge,
We knew the “Patriarchal Curse” a mere natural thunder
Bringing Eden a cleansing rain?
What if, in the lightning’s flash
We saw there were
NO
Mirrors
Sacred Books
Buddhas
Gurus
Saviours
Healers
Authority
And Knowledge was standing stark under the sky
Feet naked to earth
Eyes there for whatever light falls.
What if –?
– Audre Lorde
nice….! thanks
I agree–thanks Tina!
When Fake Wife Erin and real wife Victoria both bailed on that dance, I told Erin (who’d intimated I’d have hordes of people wanting to dance with me) I didn’t dare flake because you were schlepping all the way down and I was giving Cowboy Seth a ride and I therefore knew of .25 people wanting to dance with me, “so please pray for me.”
She retorted, “to whom do I pray, godless lesbian?”
After some thought, I told her: Audre Lorde.
Many thanks for this post. I needed this.