the weight we carry from life to life

grows heavier the closer we get to 'heaven'

(for lack of a better word to describe some

indescribable 'place' for yet again

a lack of a better word)

see how useless words truly are

and that is part of the gaining weight

of consequence we lug on our quest

I cannot do otherwise

(nor can you or you or you)

than to try to gain strength

from that miserable load

so that the bigger and heavier the load

the more strength we would have to carry it

Rexroth used that very phrase in one of his plays

and he's right about it

you can only do

what you can do by virtue of what you have

in you to do

and the more you are broken

by your own strength the easier it

will be to handle it

in my deepest sufferings I'd heard that said

and cursed the sayers pointedly

how easy someone else's burden looks

compared to your own

and how we comfort ourselves

with that illusion

if we truly gathered without a qualm

drew laughter from our pains

we'd put every comedian out of work

putting our devils behind us

but at what 'heavenly place'

or what 'earthly place' or whatever 'place' we block out

with our shadows in the sun

will we find that overwhelming strength to heave

our burden clear of our centers of gravity and description

and assume our rightful positions

in the line-ups of interactions and the definitions

of our self-formulated identities?

oh no need to say or to wonder

as one instinctively knows where one comes from

so it is each one of us grows lighter in step

so it is we drop our sack of troubles

and leave it on the roadsides of our choosing

where every direction leads us on to what 'place'

we know to be the solution of our salvation

the 'heaven' that is where we belong...

Content (c) 2008-201 Philip Milito.