(previously published in NEW THOUGHT JOURNAL)

He was the Zen Master of Brooklyn, in the late ’50s,
when I worshipped false g-ds, before the world changed,
before…I became a man.

Zeus rode a motorcycle to school, taught 9th grade English
without the Muses,
began the Poetry & Philosophy Club,
without Aristotle & Plato.
Murdered my natural flow. What did He know?

His wisdom was a Void.
Did not teach me how to write, or show me the Light, or point
to
G-d
Heaven
Immortality.
What did He see?

Without his emptiness, He could not bless.
Within his emptiness, He could not bless.

Almost murdered my metamorphosis.
But I blessed myself with rage & killed Zeus in my mind.

Coming of age meant killing all masters on the road.
Violent thoughts were the code to my soul & to peaceful ways.
Those were the days…before I became a man.
Long before, I became a person.
Light years, before I became
a quiet wave in the spiritual universe.