1. Fairy Tales
i am an atheist
she tells me of her conversion
story with a guru
who leads her inside a room
sat crossed legged
recited mantras
he places her hand on his genitals
he recites his mantras again
arms flare
beads of sweat pour down his face
onto his long robe
he places her hand on his genitals again
this time
he no longer carries male genitals
but female genitals instead
he wants her to believe
in spirit.
Fairy tales.
A Vietnamese woman retells her refugee
story on a boat
escaping to Hong Kong
she cannot swim
the storm brews heavily.
certain she will die
She prays to Guan Yin
Goddess of Compassion
with a thousand arms
hears all cries.
dawn breaks
finding herself alive
ocean water calm.
Her boatmate, an atheist,
sighted Guan Yin lift their boat
with her hands
while others slept.
Fairy tales.
whether you are ready for the messages
or not
Spirit has patience
to repeat the lesson for you
over
and
over
and
over
again
six hundred lifetimes
until you are ready for magic.
2. Breath
you suddenly diagnose yourself
as a foreigner
residing in human form
with surges of invisible force
waves of chaotic thoughts
intruding through pores of every cellular membrane
deactivating their nucleus
and devouring its only powerhouse,
the mitochondria.
you wrestle to whisper
i don't want to die.
and struggle to recall that one word
to anchor you back to reality.
breathe.
3. Attempts to Reach the Astral
i dream of travelling
faster than the speed of light
to enter a parallel universe
where hypernovas shine
thirty times brighter
than supernovas
yet their blackness
generated from their collapse
that must also be thirty times darker
cannot reach me
in the golden bubble
i sit.
a place where i can watch SN 1998bw
collapse into a black hole
forming a massive disk.
a mere spectacle from afar...
what began as an enormous helium star spinning
before deciding its own gravity too heavy to sustain
and collapsing into itself.
the memories that sting
the memories that create collapses
the memories that create black holes
are merely collapsing stars
turning into blackness.
black holes carry us to other universes
there is courage which lives inside
as my head spirals
i dream of vacation spots
on nearby visible galaxy
faint oval patch of light
at an angle of 15 degrees
like puncturing skin
with filiform needles
into sensitive acupoints
inducing qi
movement to heal nightmares.
Andromeda galaxy,
with luminous elliptical-shaped nucleus
energy emission double that of our Milky Way.
Possibilities.
It is possible,
it need not be 2.36 million light years away
if we listen
as Guan Yin listens
to the thousand cries
with compassion.
4. Cycles of Oracles
this is a test
how does one trust darkness
how much do you trust yourself?
when one was promised light?
How do you reach the top of the mountain
when you're drowning in an ocean
the mountain no longer visible
somehow you learn to fall in love with ocean water
Stockholm Syndrome can be cured
you swallow the fish
drink from fallen coconuts
play catch with arrogant iguanas
sleep on pearl white sand
forget the mountaintop
yet images of burning bodies
remain lodged in memory banks
even if it's been over a thousand years
gurgling sounds of the drowning mother
echo at night
souls do not forget
pain memories from previous lives
cries of decapitated heads sit inside your breastbone
screaming for reparation
how many more kau taus
before all karma can be absolved?
in case you become distracted enough
you will be provided with reminders
of ancient wounds
do you still feel abandoned by the spirit you trust?
i stopped believing in miracles
how some cycles
turn into oracles
you suddenly remember hearing
a song from a play you once saw
now you'’ve gone too deep
forget your way home.
but you remember the song.
it echoes
at night
in loops
in dreams.
love never left you,
you left love.
