Shema: [Towards] Wholesomeness.

Desert stars,
Connecting stars,
Constellations,
Coyotes inviting
The moon.

Wholesomeness
Unbounds us,
Warm air
Surrounds us,
Big cacti
Atune us,
Jazz music
Soothes us,
Apple cider
Warms us,
Growing boys
Ground us.

Las Noches
De Las Luminarias,
Missing only
My yin half,
Yet still so close
To the asymptote,
Wholesomeness.

She’s far away,
On her way back,
To the morgue,
Or was it the asylum?
We don’t know that,
She doesn’t know why.

Dazzling lights,
Harmonizing lows.
Twisted balance,
Cosmic balance,
Beneath the cosmic gateway.

Other families,
Dancing, smiling,
Closing their eyes,
Constellating,
Hearts finding
Wholesomeness.

Unveiling,
Revealing that
Which exists
Is not invention,
But discovery.

I’m called home,
Booking flights,
The bell strikes,
Disbelief,
Then from deep,
Acceptance.

Shema,ⁱ
Like Safta taught
When we’re in trouble,
Or at the end.

Appetite gone,
We toast champagne,
All the same,
Ecumenical,ⁱⁱ
As ever.

Four hours until
PHX to LAX,
LAX to home,
To her,
To Wholesomeness.

Desert stars,
Connecting stars,
Constellations,
Unbound us.

Now leave,
And take all the world’s
Evils with you.ⁱⁱⁱ

1. שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד (Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad / Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is One.) ↩
2. Fittingly, ecumenical comes from the Greek word “oikoumene,” which means “the whole inhabited world.” ↩
3. Istrian proverb. ↩