espresso l'anima

All the sugar collected and dissolved in the foam.

The drink below, only marginally touched,

Kept its hot bitterness.

Unceasing change, the foam could not resist,

And much too soon (too late?) the unpalatable taste

Was darkly revealed.

Attempts at order lend an illusory structure to illusory chaos.

Dwell in either for too long and you will despair:

Neither can offer the comfort you seek.

These two fallacies, like two parents playing the field,

Send children scurrying back and forth,

Leaving everyone perpetually dissatisfied.

O Arjuna of the Endless Questions,

Every answer Krshna gives, did you watch, Great Warrior,

His feet move back, as in a dance, inviting you forward.

Because there is no way to state a path of action

Amenable to you and all your cousins

And their nest of laws built on nothing.

Space seems to take on a liquid quality,

Dark, deep, shifting without pause.

You recognize the dark, ready to drink deeply.

You realize the nature of the divine is the blackness:

You’ve been adding sugar and cream to try and understand it

On your shaky, poisonous terms.

You thought it could burn away your sadness,

But every time you raise reality to your lips

You forget you are meant to be an empty cup.

Absence pouring into absence.