36 Views of San Francisco: 36+2. Masterpiece Theater
June 13, 2018

Maybe
Heaven and Hell
are just a two-story condo
suspended on
a deserted isle in time.

Maybe
they’re a cosmic comic
mashup
of “Upstairs, Downstairs”
on public teevee.

Sometimes we find Nirvana when we’re
climbing stairs,
sometimes descending.
It’s all in how you look at who you are
wherever you happen to be.

But what are you going to do
When your Neighbors
bang on your walls?
When the man downstairs bangs on his ceiling,
says the sky never “bent in agony”
like the prophet Bamu once said.

Anyway, if you’re quiet enough
You will always notice
someone trying to get your Attention.
Maybe Nirvana is in noticing.
Letting your heart Notice
what it wants
and making sure it gets fed.

Maybe Heaven and Hell are not a condo
But a hospital instead
With healers and patients
On every floor and every bed.

Believe you this:
They trade clothes regularly,
and tend the ones they’re with
before they’re tended to.

** Bamu refers to Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a spoken word poet who said “the sky bends in agony,” referring to the agony of the heavens over racism and other oppressions here on Earth.

 

Blog pairing: MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFAN VOLUME 13.4: FILMS FOR EVERY PORE

© 2018, Ravi Chandra. All rights reserved.

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