Posted on December 6, 2023 by Jenn Zatopek

My Other Examen

The father and I are one.
– Jesus (John 10:30)

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings.
– Buddha

The religious say:
You live in these tired glorious bodies.

But where? The lonely child wants
more than words but a mountain to climb onto

Where can I put my hands in yours?
How to feel our belonging together?

This heaviness is too much to carry,
unutterably alone, lost within myself.

Labyrinths of the past beckon
as I stumble around in darkness but—

In the seeming absence, your silence speaks,
reminds me tenderly in the deepest fissures of pain,

I place one hand over the other,
praising this ocean of breath and know:

We cannot help but be one, you and I,
in this dearly beloved body being breathed.

Image / Unspalsh