1. After the Ash Wednesday service, I go upstairs to the staff office And lay down on the couch. As I lay there, though, I notice countless star-like particles Floating mesmerizingly above my head— Dust, Lit up by the sunlight pouring through the window. I admire them for a long time, Observing how weightlessly they drift around— As if we lived in a fishbowl and what we call air Was suddenly as thick as water. I had forgotten that, The smaller something is, The less it seems that gravity has an effect on it— The way a small animal can fall out of a tall tree And run away completely unharmed. Why, in microscopic world, You must simply be invincible to gravity! I imagine the mites and white flies That call that strange, nano-sized cosmos home, Hopping around from particle to particle— Then, it dawns on me: This small world is strangely but unbelievably similar to outer space! Why, those speck-like bugs are just like little astro-ships Zipping all around us and landing their life-boats On scattered, suspended dust particles As if it were an asteroid field! 2. As I look closer at the debri floating above me, It becomes clear, too, that these pretty little "star-like particles" Are mostly bits of dead skin and freckle-sized hairs. I smile, because had almost forgotten That, at any given time and wherever we are, There is always this unseen ash Rising off of us and filling the air between us The way a mist rises off of a cool lake On a warm, summers day. We are always shedding our old selves. How grotesquely and quintessentially organic! “To dust you are and to dust you shall return.” Who would have thought That that cryptic, ancient mantra Was not just "religious-speak" after all— Who knew that what we’ve been repeating all these years Was so literal! And what an hilariously fitting day For such a crude and beautiful thought To cross my mind: On this peculiar day commemorating Both our dust and our love. It’s interesting, too, How similar dust and love are: Both invisibly fill the space between us, And both are perpetually breathed in So that a piece of us goes with one another Long after we've parted ways. Few thoughts have ever crossed my mind So bizarrely disturbing and profound! Ha! Most all of us thought those songwriters and poets Were just being highfalutin when they said things like, "I inhale and breathe you in" or, “A part of you will always remain in me,” When, it turns out in actuality That they couldn’t have been more matter of fact! Is it even poetic to say something so literal? Or is it just that the poetry of things is simply unavoidable When we live in a reality such as this That is so rich and ripe with meaning and beauty? This is the world I wish to wake up in: Where the cold hard facts Turn out to be secretly rich And shimmering with wisdom, And the beauty of wisdom turns out to be As commonplace as cold hard facts. And today, I caught another glimpse of that world— And through such crude realities, too!— As profound and crude And reeking of the fullness of life As today is: This strange day When we walk around With ashes on our foreheads, And our thoughts on love— But more importantly, as always, With both abiding inside of everyone of us.
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