Retreat Poem

as the suns’ first rays

begin to whisper over the horizon,

the swallows speak softly their good mornings

and the bats good night,

I step out into the crisp kingdom of sacredness.

the lake is still,

reflecting the dark red rocks

as I look out–

two mirrors quietly observing one another.

The world wakes up:

ripples begin to dance shyly,

geese skim the cool water’s surface,

and suddenly, like a fish leaping from water,

a fish leaps from the water.

The sun, emboldened in its proclaimation,

drapes my face in its warm glow

glistening off my golden armor and helmet

and sending rainbows ricocheting

from my diamond throne.

The water is waking up,

and the ripples confuse the images

(if never the mirror itself)

and as the first drone of the diesel boat

dipping its dirty little beak in the water

cuts the silence

with all the surgical precision of a dull rusty nail,

I see

that this sacred kingdom, this

enlightened society

that exists between me and you,

the objects of my perceptions, affections,

this has never disappeared,

it is only I who have forgotten

how to look.