Nonexistence Of Self

Nonexistence Of Self
© Surazeus
2023 12 08

Though I can never more talk to the dead 
by stirring sonic field of mindless thought, 
I can listen to the dead speak to me 
through whisper of wind on waves of the lake 
or mutter of trees on the hills and plains, 
for they teach me nonexistence of self. 

With burning needles of the alphabet 
I can sew vast tapestry from lost tales 
depicting how we humans have survived 
since we crawled up rivers to mountain lakes 
and stood by fruit trees to sing with bird calls 
stories about nonexistence of self. 

While walking in the mist of mountain woods 
on silent vacancy of sunless land 
between cluttered village of memory 
and voiceless cave of expectation, I 
speak the world real to spring from void of hope 
as river from nonexistence of self. 

Across the slow flash of one million years 
I stand beside the river of my mind 
and listen to its timeless song of love 
accumulate bright memories of the dead 
as ceaseless flow of stories humans share 
that record whole nonexistence of self. 

Since every river flowing in the world 
has been named for translator of its song 
to twisted narrative of human dreams, 
I search the waste land outside every nation 
to hear the wordless silence of desire 
which generates nonexistence of self. 

Through never-ending cycle of the seasons 
Earth blooms and decays with song of the water 
that captures every word humans have spoken 
to flood lush farms with ideologies 
when dams of religions collapse from hope, 
which redesigns nonexistence of self. 

We gather in garden of paradise 
to hide from thieves behind walls of desire 
till Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil 
has been stripped bare of prayers the dead recite, 
and we scatter to seed the Earth with words 
that try to name nonexistence of self. 

Every day when I wake on Earth again 
I half-remember the words of the dead 
they spoke to me in the Realm of Ideas 
so I can build Heaven from changing forms 
in temple hall where only the dead speak 
to calculate nonexistence of self.