The Gap (Between You & I)

Don't hide your shit
from me-
though my dress
will be white,
my eyes are not blind
and my mouth
has tasted the impure.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
I am not a child
or a priest
with clean hands.
I invited hate to live
in my heart
with a bitterness
like an addiction.
I injected my mind
with insanity
impossibly tangled
with reason
in a paradox box
I built with my hands
alone.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
do you think I will
judge or accuse?
Am I so untainted
to hold my ears
from your words
of honesty?
In truth, I may never
lift a glass
and partake
of your morality-
but the gap between
you and I is not
as wide as the ocean.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
my blood will flow
the same as yours
no thinner
no thicker.
I, as real as you
and quite as frail,
will look for truth
as it speaks-
not as it is spoken.

12-29-93

Control

I felt my body
spinning-spinning
out of control.
I asked you why
I knew nothing;
you laughed,
cupped my cheeks gently,
and said, "just become me."
I've always pushed,
thinking you were pulling,
reaching deeper
and touching the depth
of my shallow soul.
You stopped me kindly,
shook your head; oh majesty,
I realize.
All the time I was
spinning-spinning,
eyes closed, fetally holding,
you were pushing-pushing
me deeper-
deeper-
Never will I touch
the final depth
of your essence,
in your encompassment
gently-love pure and holy.
Stop me spinning
you stop me spinning.

12-93