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I. We work with being, but non-being is what we use
Billy, let your flowers bloom,
From your mouth into the sky,
Sparkling black and far away,
Onward drifting through the night,
and when they've served their time,
Earth-freed, ascending rainbow pinwheels whirling
through atmospheres, connecting words unspoken,
resting atop the blackest peak.
II. Hold on to the center, if you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever
A boy misunderstood, withstood
torrents unleashed in violent streams,
mouth fire hoses shooting fire at victims' silent screams
shielding against blazes, infernal heat
and so the flowers cease, decreased pieces
of plants littering trees
ease minds unused to kind beauty
and the world becomes stiff green
life cycles cycle life and circles become circles and
squares become circles and all circles are circles
and there are no hedges in mazes
no fire, blazes, shields wielded
to yield fields of fire pouring out hate
from those with no desire to see colorful
pinwheels circling and sprinning cerulean wonder
and there it becomes dry
black oceans devouring black lives
missing teeming creatures
and blessing curved nuance of white pride
one by each, blinking snuffed
delicately winking out of existence
extinguished sky-ocean darkens with those
never knowing history and their place of resistance
Among sisters and brothers,
flowers ascended through mists like mothers
testing that without them we'd
surely blind one another,
and they disappear
blindly fumbling without understanding
demanding fixes for ignorant glad-handing
older but no wiser losing
what little of ourselves along the way
III. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place
precious lilies, we, trembling,
swallow hymns like cigarettes,
birds were in our dreams last night,
animal contour sparkling
Billy, let your flowers bloom
from your mouth into the sky
sparkling black and far away
onward drifting through the night
For all love lost, and spirit gained,
For all love lost and spirit gained.
– Joshua Jandreau, 2018
