Latté

 

If you think you are a "spiritual teacher"

and the lady who fixes your latté

at the drive-through coffee gazebo is not,

then you have a serious problem.

You are a student of the dust mote,

the bee and the rose.

Learn to shut up and smile like a dolphin.

If you feel you are an "empath"

and the stray kitten licking

a plastic thimble of half-and-half

beside the trash compactor is not,

then you're seeing through your I.

Every living creature is an empath.

It's why we're all here.

Even the pilgrim snail

on a hosta leaf feels starlight

that hasn't yet arrived.

Don't you want to touch the miracle of fur,

the annihilating sweetness
of the hummingbird's tongue,
the bliss-ocean parting for your
slippery dorsal fin?

Then burn away the veil

of mind like a moth wing,

and become the flame itself.

Photo by dearest friend Aile Shebar