Did it hurt

To be Plucked

From the Totality of Atoms—

That communal Sea of existence

robbed of a few billion Billion atoms 

briefly becoming Alone—

And we say: Forget

the Ocean— you are now

Fixed

Are now Singular; a

Drop

let

Static in the Flux of 

Life

: That naked veiny Thing is a Tree

Around us is mysterious Night

The bizarre thing over There

is an Aardvark.

—We can’t Remember but it

Must have—

And does it not now Hurt to Cut 

the tree so it Gushes from its Veins and Burn 

up the night so the Stars fade and Fail 

to come Home in the Gentle dark eye

of our Sister the Aardvark?

Everything hurts Now—

Eight Billion droplets

shiver and Shriek

Oneliest

But will it hurt Also—

do you think— one luminous Dawn 

to be

Called back; to

be Returned

to the Opalescent Flow 

of their total Completion 

Surrounding Us—Who are Today

so Alone—

Or Won’t it Perhaps be a Relief 

to let Go, to dissolve, 

to Become faultless

again in our Companionship and

Integral