A New World

With this breath, I create a new world.
It is not a heaven but an earth,
full of radiant imperfections for you
to busy your hands and heart with.
I do, however, inscribe certain commandments,
not on stone but on your body,
just over the diaphragm,

not with flames but the cool green fire
that glows from within leaves and lightning bugs.
First, let there be no shame.
Second, let there be as many paths to Me
as human hearts.
Also a path for the dolphin, a path for the moth,
a path for the thistle and poppy.
Some creatures, like
standard poodles, horses, the golden-throated,
shall need no path, for they shall be
paths unto themselves.
Let us include hummingbirds and

tree frogs in that one.

Now here is the third and final
commandment: Thou shalt not say,
"My way is the only way."
If you commit such blasphemy,
you must be wrapped in silk bandages,
anointed with blue lotus and hazelnut oil,
carried with early Beatles songs
to an oasis for the possessed,
and nurtured back to health with 

drops of ointment from the stars.