and the day came

in which

it was clear (devastating)

that every single thing was strung, glued,

held together, built on top of and

buoyed up on a nonsensical sea of absolute

hysterical

meaningless

nothing

this nun once told me

all finger raised and narrow eye:

if your room is untidy

the Buddha won’t come

it’s not true –

Look ! i’ve got clothes all over the floor

cups on the bedside table

a couple of bottles rolling near the rubbish bin

and who is that standing right in front of the window ?

all red and bright and glorious and

smiling from every single pore of his body ?

and afterwards

when they asked me what it was i loved the most

i said the wind

my squalling, uncontainable brother

coming out of nowhere

impossible, wild

ripping up the old

sometimes (often) before its sell-by

we bathed in the total simplicity of absolute nothing

over and over

until our hair was matted with it

our skins saturated

we came in on a last wave – scrambling tumbling

somersaulting triumphant

to pick ourselves up salty and laughing

clambering over each other we got in the car

and went in search of something to eat

ahead of us they unroll a new road

sticky stench of sweet tarmac in 38 degree heat

squinting men in hi-viz wave their flags and say Aspetta

i say About Time and Grazie

these are the new roads for the new ways

the ones direct from Truth

 

turned out it wasn’t the prince, after all

reminded cinderella who she was

or even the fairy godmother

turned out it was cinderella herself

who, one day, sick of the charade

washed the grime off her face

told the stepmother and all those uglies where to put it

woke the fuck up