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Ani Marie McIntosh's avatar

Oh Goddess this is deliciously brilliant

Scout Rainer Wiley's avatar

Wow, thanks for reading! I’m curious what was resonant about it for you. Please share if you so desire!

Ani Marie McIntosh's avatar

Well these are my favorite lines:

until a monk’s gleaming teeth released my tired heart from

the binding rope of rumination. you are not alone, his teeth said,

not because you are not you but because you are not there.

you are inertia: the neck’s curve backward etched by time and repetition

like sounds trapped in the ridges of a record.

I read them like they were spoken personally for me.

And I can relate very much to facing karma (flinchingly or not) and death as the echo of life’s footfall.

Scout Rainer Wiley's avatar

Thanks for sharing. I wrote this after walking with the Buddhist monks in Charlotte so it’s quite literal, but it walks a line between literal and metaphorical. 🖤