Mr Man

At the centre of this is a man who knows. I want to shake my finger at him and say: "No Mr Man you DO NOT KNOW"

He says: 'I do. I know everything you see. Have knowledge of all you've read. been told. forgotten. I remind you to be clear and sensitive, to know love not hate, peace not anger, your heart not your head, to remain in the present moment.'

I say: "But you DO NOT KNOW. You say and say, but know nothing. You've heard them and I hear you telling me these things every day but you do not know. I listen but you do know. You speak in words without meaning, dry of the juice they describe. Your words are desert - endless and repetitive, alien to life. Tell me what you know of say: Winter, the first day of it when frost came on our garden, a deer jumped the fence as I opened the front door, hooves crunching on rigid grass, fresh from nibbling leaves of the tree by the chicken run. Do you know the breath leaving my lungs, gathering steam, catching the deer's eye, split spark of recognition, cold biting into my hands, warm in my chest, silver on the branches and sun criss-crossing? YOU KNOW THIS MR MAN????!!!!"

"..."

"You know the pain I feel when I see it again, lost to its innocence, immediacy. Cold my life is now but not like nipping frost. Cold like dull, walking your desert. You gave me signs for everything, direction for nowhere. Explained and TAUGHT nothing. Now I can't feel its heat and explosions hit me day by day and I burn. But can't cry. It cannot hurt this numb machine who learnt that he knows and so forgot it ALL.

YOU DO NOT KNOW!

SO I THROW YOU OUT!!!!!"

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{ - breath - }

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~~~~~~~~~~ still lake lapping at experience-possibility ~~~~~~~

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