So, the window
is open
and a lawnmower
is speaking
in mechanical tongues
as the weather
in early spring
is warm and nice
and the birds
are, you know,
well, birds,
and a friend told me
a long time ago
that Detroit
could be completely underwater
in the future,
so even though that bothers me

I guess it's OK.

A doctor told me
to smack the bed
with a tennis racket,
and when I was young
I beat up
my stuffed dog,
and when I got older
I attacked the trees
in the back yard,
so now in my late middle years
I hit the chair
three times
and then bow to it.

Music talks to me
and it bugs me
sometimes
because the message
is not so great,
but sound
doesn't say anything
and I listen
a lot
to the noise
of the world
that, to me,
sounds like music,
but the radio
plays music
that talks
and the message
is not all that great,

(but I love it anyway).

It's a drug
like medicine
and I get
side effects
like tiredness
and angry thoughts
and little bits
get stuck
between my teeth
so I have to go
upstairs
and floss
and after I eat
I always seem
to feel
the need to sleep
which I often do
even as I used to
when I worked
but it's necessary stuff
to have every day
so I think
that in a few minutes
I will go downstairs
and have a pickle.

I just watched a short film
of flowers
in fast motion
and I decided
that flowers try, too,
and that they struggle
and toil
like we all do,
and I like to reconsider
what the holy men
have said,
because maybe
they were wrong
and just saying things
like we all do,
and I like to doubt
the holy books
because they might be wrong
and just saying
old, handed-down garbage
or maybe not,
so I reconsidered the lilies
and found that they do indeed
toil and spin,
and they do dress nicely.

When I was a kid,
my mother
was pouring milk
and she said to me,
"Say when"
and I had no idea
what she meant by that,
but as the milk rose,
I just said, "When",
and she stopped,
so this began
a lifetime
of not knowing
when to say when,
because there is no marker
about when to stop,
so after much work
and struggle,
I found out
that I can say stop
at any time,
and I think
the sooner, the better
for many things,
and I found out
that I don't have to say stop
to many other things,
so then
up comes the other aspect of mind
called the start mind,
and that's a whole different animal
altogether.

The Zen master
addressed the gathered group
and said,
"You don't know anything."
and one of the students replied,
"What do you mean,
we don't know anything?"
and the master
was silent
and appeared puzzled,
so I now know
what the master means
by not knowing anything,
because at any given moment
I don't know a thing
and knowing for sure
is so difficult
that nobody probably does
know anything,
but I can also understand
the student's response,
because of course,
I know all about
this here and now,
or so I think,
so like me right now,
the master was silent
and puzzled,
because probably
he knew nothing.