Late tonight my body longs for the balm of sleep,
the oblivion of dreams—yet awareness flares
like a just-struck match; ideas rumble and roll.
I am not beset by worry, but by the bright ache
of knowing how brief it all is—this speck in eternity
we call life, the amazing grace by which we’re
allowed to coexist with fur and flesh and bark
and soil, here on Earth, singular in this universe.

How many among us still do not demonstrate care,
believing this to be some personal joyride—
all that is needed are fast cars and city lights,
enough money to fill a bathtub, to wine and dine
and consume until we burst—not with fullness
but gluttony—overblown with our own importance,
forgetting the thread of interconnectedness
that binds all life, all species, all creeds
within a landscape only a Master could paint.

How astonishing, this Earth-walk; how amazing
this animal body we inhabit for a time—
a perfectly designed system of checks and balances.
If only we possessed the courage to trust, to attend,
to listen and adjust, instead of pushing and forcing
and wishing to be anyone or anything
other than the miracle we are.

If we could attune, our bodies would adjust,
the weight of worlds would drop from weary shoulders,
and our hearts would sync with the pulse of every creature,
every being who ever existed—their stories intermingling
with our own to form an exquisite gossamer tapestry
cloaking the planet with a single beating crystalline
heart of love.

And so I lie awake within the currents of this knowing,
bridging worlds long alive in me—
not frightened, not longing—only awake
in the shimmer of soul-light that keeps me hovering
until dawn, until daybreak draws me gently
across the thin veil
into the tender gravity of form.

Anacortes, WA, 2020 ~ bj