Independence

Clear as a cool summer morning
after the 4th of July.
Independence Day.

I first understood life,
my own life, on my deathbed.
That bed —- a bloody battle field,
in all its glory and horridness.
Acute, the senses.
Smell of the soaked earth
on my right cheek and in my ear.
The salt-taste of flesh by teeth
broken to rough sharpness.
I felt more alive than ever
in the pain.

Every action –- precise.
More the response to
a force inevitable
and certain in cause –-
rather than reaction
to a loose chain
of unrelated events.
Everything relates.
There are no tentatives.
No more unknowns.
All culminates in now.

Even the devious
glint in his eyes
seemed paramount,
and punctuated
in a flash of sunlight
on his blade’s swift arch,
as I parried it’s first strike
with my remaining forearm.

In that instant
I know one thing:
This life was over.
Fear no longer ruled over reason.
Destiny’s next card was dealt.
I played the hand of fate
with true intent.

This morning
I see it rained in the night.
Last night after displays
of clamor and flash
that studded horizon’s crown
the smoke of fireworks settled in
like the mist of that mythical city
hiding again the truth
from new seekers.

It is clear now.
The many blasts
and colors expanding
in light-blooming skies
and exquisite dreamscapes surreal.
Gone—with the last finale,
yet forever set and sound.
Vivid and clear
as the rose window
by morning light.
Preserved now
the imprint of truth.
A truce of consciousness.

I lay in the field.
And see it clearly.
The one truth coalesced
from the duality of life
on this small earth.
Evil-doers become sainted.
Hot flesh becomes fillet of Soul
cooled by the chill
of guilt and horror.
And light becomes darkness
and brightens again.
Balance. All opposites
merge into each other.

The one thing I know
is that death becomes life.
And life—death.
Independence from the perpetrator.
Freedom from terror,
from greed,
from fear.

The glint in his eye
becomes the Light of God.
Enmity resolves.
And all is one.
With my brother.
And one is God.
Balance.
For God is Love.
And Love is God.

Two squirrels chatter
from opposite trees.
But the morning cardinal
sings again from ancient oak.
After independence
truth in action is Love.
.