ZEN OF A FAILING STAR

AN UNCOMMON MAN

Be of good cheer in ignorance

to the plight of the living

as your steps tread upon the remnants

of dead men’s thoughts used to pave your path.

Think not of where you tread

or

whom you block through blindness to all but self.

The paved path is full of thought and intentions

of them wanting a better world

only to find that time overtook any vision of life

different than this risen one

under a self-declared moon

greedy for eating the smaller lights

of night’s life.

It is nothing more than a quick turn of time’s ankle

to extinguish a faint glimmer of a common life;

nothing more than a sprinkle of oil or water

to quell the rising dust of the dead

who had nurtured knowledge

of had been common before.

I would that I were a common man.

A human traveler not afraid

to let someone in line ahead of me,

not easily angered when confronted by anger in another,

able to step back and hold a door open for a stranger,

easy to exchange pleasant conversations with the unknown,

able to express my feeling simply with words thank you or please,

think thoughts and ideas freely without reservation of persecution.

I would that I had not become an uncommon human.

C() M Durfee

8/27/13