After so many years of books and
scholars
Today is the day I choose Some
of the Dharma
Home again, the kids out playing
I open the Kerouac I've been
delaying
With barely a page of Dharma
read
My wife on the phone says
"Payne is dead"
A few minutes later, I dial the
net
The news is confirmed and my
eyes go wet
"Life is suffering"
and how I believe it!
the only escape is to eventually
leave it
But compassion can cure in times
like these
when the heart sinks soft right
to the bottom
And whether the soul goes off
into space
or back to the Master just past
the gate
The essence remains an original
face
while appearing to us as
something erased
This "syrupy" thing
that I work at describing
is the crest of a wave that
Payne had been riding
And the duffs and the shanks
that lead us to sighing
are just markers in time of our
great fear of dying
The riddle you see is a problem
with time
There's never enough though you
feel just fine
And all this talk of golf and
how
is just about a step in the
moment of Now
