The Small Thing I Cannot Leave

 

Ann Tudor www.anntudor.ca

They were all small things

but they added up to my life

and they were all to be left.

Finally I cried: I will lose everything!

 

And then I woke.

Before my cry, my loss,

I had felt the fire gathering

through the house.

We chatted calmly about its progress,

moving from room to room as needed

to escape the smoke.

 

My cousin was there,

my Buddhist cousin

whose creativity inspires us all.

Did I dream him for his stylishness

or for his Buddha nature?

 

His presence reminded me

that we are all the Buddha.

His acceptance of the firestorm

growing in my house

did much to make me calm.

 

But at the end, when we left the patio

because the glow of fire menaced,

even his presence could not deflect

my sudden sharp knowledge:

I will lose it all!

And at that moment the glowing domed roof of the house

burst into final flames and I awoke knowing

that life

is the small thing I cannot leave.

 

Copyright 2014 Ann Tudor

http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com