When we prance stupidly in the sun

The darkness coils into shadows

Beneath our feet

And we pretend we have escaped.

And when those shadows slither around our legs

And bring us to our knees

We cry out, “They’re back!”

As if they had ever left.

Suffering is transient

Eternal

But the middle way is a lie

Transcendent numbness.

Darkness and light

Not twins

Mother and child

Snakes, all.

Day and night, I hear them hiss.

You loved me

But I did not love you

Enough

Until now.

You gave me winding scars

That I might cut off their heads

And you cried when you were happy

Because you knew the price.

Death was not kind to you

But it freed you from the sliding, slinking things

That cling to us all

From birth to earth.

Maybe now, father

Without light or dark

Without a road in the middle

There is only peace.