The Changing II

Ballet - the tides 
dance and sway as they 
move their minutes forward and 
progress their lives one 
inch more - feet, hands, 
heart, sore with scrabbling 
up the mountain-side and 
kicking by those who 
got in the way, modern

life the same as the 
ancient one, see the drunk 
drinking, the beggar 
begging, the lame man 
bewildered by the 
space he cannot freely 
walk.  Talk and say

nothing for a single pair of 
hands cannot wash 
the world clean - the clean 
towel, clean with 
rinsing, the blindfold, the 
gag, and the clean

linen swathing the 
body, wrapping the 
shoulder, and the sandals 
protecting the feet from 
stones.  He had a sad 
smile, was 
far from home

and his palms twitched
from imminent pain, vision
of blood, voices jeering
the silence.  The long stretching
moment came
and went.

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