Safewords

my definitions are like
stop signs in the middle of
a one-way road
puzzle-made for
the fear-ecstasy of certainty

yours lead by first time examples
like apple trees and gravity
like eve and knowledge of falling
like children tumbling on the hard-knock, and rising
like the cross of the desert, carrying, and crying

when we are thirsty
we carry the desert
on our sun red shoulders
knees raw blaming
the sand in rage until
sand is just sand
repenting our sins in tears until
father's wine glass is just a wine glass again

there is no such thing as sin
there is no such thing as god
"how else do i get love like that cross to you?" He said
and that was the final point
and then there were none left
and then i was circling in this place
like i have always been

"God is the blue air," said Mary
Because there is no such thing, not out there
And oh, the love inside that !

My mother's always right
Sometimes I wish to invite her
To how truth is like a sand castle
Fortified with moats against the waves
Until it is reunited with its enemy

God Lies
Like that trick of the light
That same blue air
Resting wordlessly wrapped around the earth
Blanketing our heartplace

"It is what it is"
The hard truth of the matter;
        Ever softening
        Like the acorn in the salty sea
            When Truth is
            Bigger on the Inside
            Call it Love

Bigger in many ways
With carrying capacity
For both nights and for days

"God is a lie!" screamed the child, then he learned to tread light.
"What does this word mean to you?" asked the lover; then he became beloved.
So what was left?
With all these grains of sand sifting through his fingers once again.
"I never did learn how to build a castle as good as my best friend."

There was this wedge:
"If you do not crawl on your knees, God shall flatten your face to the earth and dust your inheritance away."
As that scepter drove into the sun's bride.

And this one:
"You cannot be both, so you must choose."
As the sun's daughter curled up, shivering, eclipsed on the dark side.

He found himself
Lost again in the halls
Of her sandcastles.

Listen:
The Word is an inside bird.
Let her out of your cage.
There is no authority
On what God ought to mean to you.
To blaspheme is an inside job
Against your own spirit.

If God is a lie, then do not act like God is truth.
If God is truth, then do not act as though God is a lie.
Let no one claim your authority over you,
Unless you ask for it,
Consent is your power;
Your power, the Word too—
That I can ripple through your sound,
If you want me to.

Be the riversong sung by the reed of all things
Say: I am the dance of the that which becomes your manyworded play
And lose yourself in performance

Within you there is
The child who believes
And the child who says No! to garment, who
Love nurses with milktears, who weans
Love marries opposition into a one name, who
Loves love, who
Life longs for
Itself, the child

God is the Safeword
The Eyes that mean No
The Less that means More
The No that means Yes
The Lie that means Love
The Stopgap that means (No) More!
The Thunder that makes Lightning
The Faith in a Beautiful Lingering



                        silence



Am I trying to make a point again?
    Well,
        That's what a safe word is for—
            That's why the priest says Bismillah
                Before raising his knife
                    To offer an end of a life 
                        In the Name of Life
                            "Bismillah your old self," Rumi says
                                Like that gap between you and your beloved
                                    That calls out for closeness
                                        The ending that returns you
                                            To the you in each other.