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SWALLOWING THE SUN AND MOON WITHOUT
LEAVING THE WORLD IN DARKNESS (GOOD LAY OF WISDOM)
Crooks have their way of handling their world;
Honest ones will stitch and sew timidly.
Crooks have a way to proclaim their victory;
But the honest stumble, bump and stutter.
Crooks have their way to dress in nouveau-riche fashion;
But the honest wash, clean and press.
Crooks have their way to kick, knock, run;
The honest will take a taxicab.
The crooks will assume, expect and consume;
The honest will speak softly with timid smiles.
The crooks are usually dirty, oiled with their own sweat;
The honest are clean, well-groomed--at least free of dandruff.
We have a lot of reference points here--
However, I would suggest you swallow the sun and moon simultaneously.
That does not mean you are a crook,
But an honest man not wasting time.
Since we met, I have been trying to make you an honest person.
You had your little ways;
Your being honest is wicked.
Sometimes I wonder who taught you that:
Maybe your Canadian honest crooks,
Or your crooked honest Canadians.
However, someone talked you into being a timid person.
Some quarters of theism would say:
If you are a person of proclamation in early life, it is bad;
You should not take anything, even if it is given to you;
You should say thank you for everything, even if it is yours;
You should learn to say no thank you if things are not yours;
You are supposed to watch your P's and Q's if things are uncertain.
In short, you should not hurt a flea;
If a flea is your neighbor, turn the other cheek.
Nevertheless, if there is a big disagreement,
You should not hesitate to cut his throat
And disbelievers in Christendom are animals--
You might as well make good Yorkshire pudding out of them.
However, when your shoe walks without you
And your hat floats without you,
You wonder who's in them.
I think you should be startled,
You have a perfect right to be startled.
We're not joking, are we?
Of course not.
Buddha died in bed;
Christ died on the cross;
However, you might die in bed on a cross.
We shouldn't be too concerned with little details like that.
Let's turn the whiskers of cat,
Polish the nails of poodle.
Let's not tiptoe, anyhow.
Take a big chunk out of my life;
Make a good cake out of it.
Let us roll in a kingsize snowbed,
Let us sniff Mitsuko,
Let us pluck hair off the tiger's back,
Let us eat sausage of Brahman bull,
Let us catch the sun with a net,
Let us catch the moon with bait,
Let us not tiptoe.
Since your world is mine,
There is no problem with polite society
As long as you don't perform the mudra of chicken,
As long as you don't proclaim like a duck,
As long as you don't float like a baby baboon.
Let us proclaim the lion's roar,
Let us fly like a seagull,
Let us shriek like an eagle:
Which reassures us that there is no maggot in our brains.
Let us proclaim in the name of delight and love and fearlessness.
We could eat our eggs and bacon happily ever after.
17 April 1978
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