Pursuing the Unconditional

It is a scorched and sacred place

a place of mystery

where lions gather and eagles circle

I was once a man enshrined in denial 

now navigating this trembling light with you,

a longing in search of its own meaning

It was there in our talks when words fell short,

there in our features, when eyes pulled back 

knitted with concern,

watching our unbounded presence condense 

into the institutions of man and woman

caught in the rulership of roles and distance 

that seeks safe harbor in loneliness

We do not speak of it — but know it by its absence,

the raw, forbidden flower

of being known…

We have tried the unrehearsed practice of tenderness 

and were heckled by a chorus 

of inflamed nerves and false gods,

the rearing heads of serpents,

tongues flickering with doubt and mistrust  

that would keep the garden secret

We could have remained bonded   

to the doctrines of loss 

that would blind us apart forever…

instead we chose to close the injured space,

push past unwieldily boundaries and 

cliches of the earnest heart, 

making the choice, again and again

to pursue kinship with each other’s hardship

and go beyond the me and you

to live in service to the us

And now in the dark pitch of isolation…

we tunnel towards each other

battling our way through narrow passageways 

haunted with memories, 

past all shouts of warning from every unhealed scar …

to rediscover the towering openness of

unconditional Love