A Lesson in the Afterlife

When it is then,
that we all are enlightened?
Bodhisattva stays around
'til the end of the workday...

He/she can go home, and reach paradise,
nirvana and all the crimson fruit trees in existence
made from the pupils of the creator's eyes;

Bodhi stays around, absorbing our tears,
fears, lusts and shortcomings
so we will know we have a friend in Her.

But she is hard to find,
on the lake of darkness,
the black pools of our stupidity,
regrets and gray cloudy mistakes

again and again and again...the wheel runs onto our broken
carcass;
calls us re-born and throws us back into the pit for another go.

Chance, circumstance, the great number of all these souls I have to save-
when will they learn, and when will I decide that it's not worth it
to stay, and ascend to the heavens with those I find level with.

I cannot.
I cry into my wine,
carress all of your wounds, as if they were mine,
cradle you all as my sons and daughters from beneath the ample sky
which fails us every time,
and say "try again, little ones"
you'll make it on the next ride.

I'll keep my wares at the end of the bar,
and stay for another round, embraced in ignorance and sighs.

~ M. Lucia