tonight i weep

spread-eagle on my back

sad as candles flutter

and sweet

after weeks of attending

my daughter and her daughter

tears running into my hair

as yoga begins

my daughter teaching

before i fly away

it’s all so tenuous

being here

in this place

being anywhere

primordially simple

nothing happening

just sound, smell, taste, touch and sight

radiating, penetrating

mocking desire for more

i weep at the slights i’ve caused and received

moments lost, moments like this

of surrendering to love

my once-helpless daughter now seasoned

showing i passed the baton i barely knew to hold

while her daughter hour upon hour

pushes to know her body and mind

a drama i will rarely see

because of distance

and my death which hovers off-stage

to enter at its timing

leaving my daughter to hold this same rich loneliness

that my parents bequeathed me

supported by earth

and saved by this present moment i weep

knowing if i am lucky enough to die of disease

i may lie like this reaching for my last breath

begging for release when my body is used up

and having no siblings, my daughter may come

and place her hands on this old man

as he lies dying

the way she does now

as my teacher

© 2016Pope

Medellin, Colombia. August 22, 2016

On the occasion of being soon to depart my dear ones.