Open up your mind
And you will surely find
Another point of view
Staring back at you
The very thing you fear
Is that which is most near
A shell that’s long and wide
Is how a tortoise hides
Everything you find
That lives outside your mind
Is like a point of view
Penetrating you
In your somber shell
In which you live so well
If feels you are alive
But stuck in a beehive
How do you get out of jail when you’ve been in there your whole life?
How do you get back to that place you were before you were born?
Every point of view
And everything you do
Points to your very grave
And to that vow you gave
Arrow to the Sun
When all is said and done
You lay your tortoise eggs
And walk on your own legs
But you
Cannot grow
If your tortoise shell
Refuses to forego
A certain kind of growth
Like sitting on a shelf
And taking off your Mask
So when the spirits ask
You go
Up in smoke
Hear the sound
That little tortoise spoke
There’s only one ground and it sits in the hole of your wide-open heart!
And to truly be whole you must shatter the Shell and break into constituent parts
The Land holds me
The Land holds you
The Land is like a tortoise shell,
That glistens Green and Blue
And you hold me
And I hold you
And in this holy holding
Both are born anew
And we may break,
Break apart
And feel the shackles cracking
From across our very hearts
Until that day
When we rise
Like a single body
Opening its holy eyes
The Tortoise Shell
It wholly cracks
I feel the fissures forming
All across and down my back
It feels like blood
But it is not
It’s just the sloughing off
A manvantara’s worth of rot
What is born
Is born anew
Our bodies form the tissues
Our thoughts they form the glue
And you love me
And I love you
This I know and always will
And I know that you will too
Who opened the door and let the Spirit through?
I say: I do
I say: you do
I say: we do
we do
we do
watercolor on paper, 12"x16"
Comments