Can You Bow?

Can you bow

like a broken necklace

scattering your brightest tears?

All other yoga postures simply

remove the stiffness

so that you can bow.

To bend is the first freedom.

Don't just bow to the master,

bow to a grain of pollen like a bee.

Genuflect like a thirsty panther

drinking from a water hole at sunset.

Bow to Spring like mountain snow

melting into stream laughter.

To the sound of a tree frog

in the jasmine vine at midnight,
bow down.

To the plums of September
thumping the ground, showing you
the way to fall, the way to
split open and offer your juice.

Bow to the silence of the doe

who, after all, is eating your roses.

Bow to the wail of the newborn American

whose mother crossed over

the border last night.

To your own breath,

to the secret name in your heartbeat,

bow down. 

Fill the hollows of your body 

with the blues of the sky.

Bow so completely

that you shatter your crown

and sow the earth

with stars.