Delivery Instructions

I often go missing—
find myself lost
and slightly confused.

But the familiar story
of lost and confused
is suffused with
unmeasured moments
of ease that come
tumbling one after
the other to rescue
me from my
self-ish duties.

The Judge, however,
routinely finds me
and charges me with
abandoning my post.
‘What about the
host of obligations?’
he says ‘Who will
take care of it all
while you are out
and about on another
aimless escapade?’

In spite of my self
I feel his point
and willfully relent
and grudgingly return
to bear the full weight
of my various
self-requirements.

But no sooner am I
back in the harness
than I am planning
my next escape.

It’s really so easy.
Wherever you are,
just stop. Stop
in the middle of any-
thing and the spell
is broken. The doors
come unhinged
of themselves and you,
you are the one
to step across
the well-worn threshold
into the world
of grass that grows
green by itself.