Sunday, April 3, 2022

Poem 81

:Teach only LOVE:
decades old mantra 
borrowed to build
my teacher self
my conductor self
my self self.
An intense focus
to hide the truths 
my foibles
character defects
traumatic childhood.
[“Oh, stop,” says my therapist self.]
 
I feel a whine whipping towards howling.
 “You try pouring Love through zoom!”
And, I do act with Love—
I feel think and act from that golden island.
Pour love and care into the cold giant flat glass screen.
I can’t feel the vibrations of others
who no longer sit near me
as they learn to play or
perform in ensemble.
I can’t smell them nor
the scent of their victories
their tensions fears hopes anger
their love or their day-to-day-ness.
I can’t hear the true tone of their note making
can’t hear the breaths
can’t touch them or hug them
or bask in the rippling, tender
vibrations of their smiles.
Nor, can they feel
the truth of my concern
over their sufferings—
the depth of my love
crushed into aerialized electrons
eeking through insulated
fragile copper wires
my tiny scattered sparks
reorganize somewhere else.
My voice chasing after
brokengarbled words and notes.
 
Somewhere there lingers
smells of morning coffee
and buttery toast
or juice or cereal or eggs
or no breakfast at all.
Where morning or afternoon
sunlight glances
diagonally through  
swirling dust motes
captured on the screen.
Motes slowly drifting
clouds sparkling minutia.
 
(I never mention this to students.
They might not understand
the beauty of life now goes on
beyond touch or taste or smell
or how I miss sneezing
after breathing them in.
They might be offended
or shamed.
I don’t know.)
 
       

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