I descended into the pit with Caligula <br />while my hero the Dalai Lama <br />serenely watched men <br />sawn in half <br />their soft flesh <br />bubbling blood into the air. <br />And I understood nothing. <br />Lonely <br />and longing for <br />his words: <br />Goodness inherent <br />in every heart <br />he said that again and again <br />like stars <br />like wind <br />a million hours of meditation <br />so he knew <br />his breath impregnable <br />as chunks of diamond <br />yet I could not shift <br />from the immense crater of <br />Caligula’s perversity— <br />slaughter from a jiggling <br />tongue <br />devouring my beloved <br />teacher.<br /><br />Charles Chaim Wax<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/being-at-one-time-defeated/
