Last Veil

 

When the last veil falls
All that remains is spaciousness
All that remains is freedom
Boundless, peaceful, silent

The veils lie discarded
A heap on the closet floor
Some colorful, some drab
Threads that once wove a story

An adventure story
With comedy, tragedy, and fantasy
Always seeking, always searching
For that which was under the veils

This, this nothingness is everything
All else is superimposed
A weighty overcoat
Garish like lipstick on a goat

Then the phone rings
And I run to don the last veil I wore
For surely the caller wants something
And all I have is nothing

But the veil feels too heavy
And the chit-chat too banal
Tiring, time consuming
A feeling of suffocation

So I removed the veil
And let the talking weave a story
And I listen and watch
As a new story is birthed

And the story of someone’s cancer
Is the story of someone’s latest travels
They are the same– the stories of life
No better or less… just energy dancing

Each story has its theme song
Repeated ad infinitum—like a broken record
Happy, sad, war, peace, love, hate, birth, death
Surely, God, you can do better than this

And the emotions they evoke
Is just another sense– like hearing or taste
The cancer story evokes the taste of sadness
The travel story evokes the sound happiness

Both meaningless
From this boundless place
A pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar
In this ocean of peace

And waking up
From my own stories
Meant the characters had to die
Let today be their wake

This doesn’t mean I won’t dance
I will in each moment
With a garment knitted hastily
To bind me together

But it unravels just as quickly
Unable to hold its shape, its label, its role–
If you are looking for yesterday’s dance
I’m sorry; it lies forgotten on my closet floor

© bjbeyers  February 8, 2015