Life is Precious

In the dream
She gave me
her typical silent treatment

life's experiences informed her to
think before She speaks

how those silences used to kill my
need-to-know why and right now
young woman's curious and playful mind

Her knowing smirks
spread thickly like a Mother's superior intution
known all over the doormats of every home

then her voice echoes as if it yawned awake:
"all I ever wanted you to consider is that life is precious. It's as precious as a gem."

that's it.
10 years of silence.
and this is what she tells me.

I become enraged by these pearls of wisdom

All the stupid, misguided, wasteful energy sufferings
when all I had to consider was:
"life is precious. As precious as a gem."

i wouldn't have done this or that
said this or that
or slept with this or that.

this is the beginning of the truly holy life.
no matter how humiliating it has been to get here.

I'll be damned to find out what she says to me in 10 years' time.

Perhaps: "Eating broccoli" will be a profound teaching
when my stomach is beyond capable of digestion.

But her echoing wisdom is from a woman
who has been desperately trying to get through to me.

It's me who couldn't listen.