LONE

The only thing worth anything
is extending, stretching, offering
and doing so without the protection
that comes pre-installed.

"Do you free yourself from fear by
cowering in your physical body?
Your body is a boat to lay aside
when you reach the far shore.
Or sell it if you can find a fool.
It's full of holes."

Thus the poet with a shotgun under his bed.
And what of the mind and what of the heart and
what of the soul and what of the passion and what
of the what?

The giving is not to be feared--it's when the giving
is unwanted.  Or seems to be.  That's the thing really to be
afraid of and it's what causes all the drink, suicide, self-destructive pain and yelling,
the hitting and being hit.
It's when you speak the words and all
they do
is come back
to you.