November 17, 2021

No Time To Lose Moon

I don’t want to die & don’t want to be reborn forever

can’t live the way it was & can’t touch the bottom of the future

like a giant catfish or a nine foot sturgeon ten hundred years old

desire occupies the current below the deep

Scenario:

no more longing

Imagine I am grateful to everyone for everything.

Tears moisten my face.

I make eye contact & hold the hand of suffering.

Life seems to glisten like a newborn.

This season drive all blame into one blaze.

Herd the feral mustangs, recognize causality.

One hot fire.

Who is the one you call yourself

during these long moonlit nights

wandering this living earth?

Are you not everyone,

is everything not you?

Settle—after wildness & close inspection.

Water naturally clears absent agitation.

Mind swims on. Do one thing fully.

Poem:

no more longing

A gift-giving river

death a promise

all open & lucid & bright

POEM BY
Qayyum Johnson
ARTWORK BY SUIKO MCCALL

Inhale & Exhale II, 2013. Sumi ink on Yupo, 20x10" diptych.

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