Discipline
 
Once in a while
you meet a man who knows how to ask
all the right questions;
that night,
 
my answer to each was the same
as the last word
that will ever be said in the world,
which is yes.
 
I pulled him close,
for a time
into the closest place
I could imagine,
 
both of us saying yes
over and over again
by never once
saying no.
 
However long,
the moment passed
like a meditation on the breath
where pain arises as a presence
 
that can no longer be ignored,
then easily overwhelms
all the lesser distractions;
when all that's left are anguish
 
and the steady movement
of the breath,
then comes a vision
of some essential truth
 
about the world we live in.
His face was sad as Jesus,
and oh, how he wept,
even as he begged for more.
 





© 2002 Louis Flint Ceci