NEAR DEATH

co-written with Salina Clifton

You have to get very near-death
In order to live.
Every second,
Death walks hand-in-hand with Life
While I dance awake my serpent slumber

But it’s agonizing,
To die so many little deaths everyday.
When will I stop dying so often! I cry.
When you stop LIVING, the reptile lies.

And I say: No, when I start GIVING.

Once, when it was fully integrated;
Death came knocking
yet one more time.
I opened the door
& It slipped inside.
Bowing with reverence,
I took a deep breath &
Exhaled the pain inside my Heart.
To my surprise,
nothing remained to be felt.
Could this be???
Was this,
The Boogie Man I had managed to escape,
all these years
THIS NOTHINGNESS !!
And what, pray tell, was all the fuss about?
So much peace in Here....
The coiled serpent
Patiently awaiting her next dance."