Something's Not Right

Something's not right.

You can't quite get the world to conform

to the story you tell about it

in your head.

You could repair what is wrong

if you could just get your mind

to download properly,

copy and paste it onto

the energy of ineluctable dandelions

springing from cracks in the asphalt,

rubble in the bomb crater,

old men living in tents

under the highway exit ramp.

The problem really isn't the world

but your thoughts about it.

The story you tell in your head

is never quite the same as my story,

or the story told by

the other party.

So there is conflict, and suffering,

even if our stories are about

salvation, justice, equality,

the perfect marriage,

the cleanest environment,

the path to enlightenment...

Happiness never happens

if we glaze the planet

in the slather of our commentary.

Joy is a dance of photons

swirling in the chaos of silence

at the heart of now.

Let the story and its teller

disperse like fine morning mist.

Allow the creatures to

clarify themselves,

becoming just who they are,

the way silt filters, settling

in the transparency

of a mountain stream.

Rest in the miracle

that has already happened.

Shut up. Look around.

Clouds vanish.

Here are crystal drops on

blades of grass, each containing

the sun.