Once an angel sat down next to me,

In the form of a homeless man,

On a graffitied park bench and

Said to me:

“Why you’ve been an idiot.

What else are mountains for-than to climb?

And what more are sights for-than to see?

And while your blood is running through your veins-

-oh what more are mornings for than to come home

in the clearer air of the lightening sky?

and with a smile-

suuuurely I was asleep.”

He smiled proudly down at me and i nodded far too politely-

“ughh!

WELL you just don’t get it!”

i’m sure he could tell by my face

this was a strange thought indeed.

“would you rather wake up fifty years from now in the same haze you’re in today??

don’t deny it-

we slam down on the alarm clock everyday-

to pound its beating out of our way

and

WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!

for real

and then you’ll pull your eyelids out

to paint the pretty face-

that you’ll never see.”

all this talk was too much

i was used to a 5-step program

high school, college, marriage, kids, death

and where is the fun in  that?

but it is a pleasure

to befriend strangers on park benches and talk

to something you don’t know.

it is passion to greet the middle of the night as a well-known friend

and to abandon the same morning cup of coffee

for a wander through the woods

so let it ring in your hearts-

i am not dead!

now we were friends-the tattered angel and I-

he taught me-

you are not one inch more than anything

you make yourself to be.