More than one person has been driven to walk by this poet’s van over these last years, clearly having lost their sanity through the same program of audial harassment to which she herself has been subject.

She ventures to theorize that “rises in psychological problems” have indeed followed her across the country, coming to their full flower in Pueblo, Colorado in the last year and a half, and growing now in Sacramento, California as well.

The poet’s online device has continued to malfunction sporadically over the last two days.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:53): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/11ynd1xhtwvbkw8nm4e8k/To-the-Acolytes.mp3?rlkey=js6n0fachkddesv8qafsdd26y&dl=0

*****

To the Acolytes: Why We Train

There will be times when you have gone
The wide, wild world into
‘Twill turn a less than holy face
On one as radiant as you

‘Twill seek to walk you through the mud
That extra, extra mile
Then go another mile again —
Whatever ‘takes to dim your smile

‘Twill count on your exhaustion
Your human frailty
‘Twill think it only obvious
And element’ry be

That if delay it long enough
Acceed to reas’nable demand,
Your hunger, thirst, and need for sleep
Will get the upper hand

That if it bear down hard and long
Upon your peace of mind
You will to its own level stoop
And become less than kind

Less always considerate
Less patiently to wait
Till their own error they perceive
And open up the gate

Which closed, and kept closed, had been
All the time before
By same self-centered guardians
Of that communal door

‘Twill think that if it threaten you
With loss itself would fear
Sufficiently, you’ll obfuscate
What had been crystal clear

Pretending every action fair
By those imagine they
A whip hand over your head hold —
That’s when you need be able say:

“Keep your food and keep your shelter
Keep whatever you desire
Whom never in this lifetime
To one true ecstasy aspire

To one agape moment
Truly egoless
Wide open to the miracles
Which every moment bless

It’s true I’ll suffer very much
If you see me out
Without funds or possessions,
Of that there is no doubt

But I can confidently state
That I so deeply pity you —
My every moment’s misery
You karma vile accrue

To be perfectly honest
~ As you’ve forgotten how to be ~
‘Twixt losing me and winning you,
I’d rather much be me

For you won’t understand the why
Of your inner unhappiness,
But I’ll know just exactly where
That peaceful glow came from which bless

This perhaps slender wanderer
For several too much she fast
But one with her own soul
When heaven to she goes at last!”

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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