AVANT SOUL

Youth passes, and time has given me some new lines

My heart had barely greeted morning 
	when afternoon struck its ominous chimes.
		Before I knew it, 
			the sun past its zenith in the sky
	
I awoke at 2 o'clock, my body middle aged -
There seems no reason nor rhyme to these seasons

What unkind joke is this, to strap me 
	to a seat near fifty years? 
		This car needs a tune-up! 
			I've barely begun to stand on my feet, 
				and that's a crime.

Blind Justice, as you mock the decades' creases on my face,

When Fortune has neither increased my wisdom,
	nor added to my wealth, 
		I dwell in this aging shell of a human
			who begins to grasp the journey						

Rich in yearning, 
		spare in resources, 
			and compromised in health.


I awoke at 2 o'clock, my life more than halfway complete

So soon shall fate undo the midnight hour
	before my work is done

Get me God's mechanic for a spiritual tuning,
	a priest for bread and wine -

At the very least, set my feet 
	at last
	   upon the path, 
		walking towards awakenment, 
			before I've said farewell.

If for every thought of wisdom
	was a moment's beat of knowing,
		the sound of blossoming is like a song,
			the crackle of opening, of growing -

I can delay no longer what my heart has been foretelling.

Truly nature's planted now fresh buds
And borne the fields of growth,
Brings blossoms to this mature oak,
Rustles fragrant flowering vines -

As my feet begin to creak and crumble,
	these hands reach towards the sky -

One  miracle empowers all my questions
	One  green leaf cracks the celestial canopy
		One  miracle has shined:

			As my body decays in death to earth,
				a feast for earthworms' treat,

					Vines of passion flowers
						spring from my outreached hands
	

							to pierce the vaulted roof of heaven

								and  place  blossoms  at  God's  feet.

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