Original Mind

The world’s not really
this familiar
 
this familiar
assumption
 
we go to meet
--and yet hold back from--
 
as if attending a party
with complicated guests…
 
How many evenings
have you turned away?
 
As if the life you really want
could only begin
 
once something else had happened,
something else that was not yet here…
 
All the unmet conditions
you’ve placed before happiness
 
have kept you a person in waiting
like someone overlooked, someone
 
whose time has yet to come,
as if God somehow
 
forgot to pack you a lunch…
 
Right now
a wheel of fortune is spinning
 
but notice: its center is completely still
completely empty

--well, actually
there's not even a center--

But bet all your money here
on a clear reception

of that hollowness,
a nothing that lacks nothing.

It’s like we have two minds.
One is conditioned, and conditional…
 
And it’s filled with drama:
—your anchor-less ship ever drawing close
 
to fearful rocks of loss
or hopeful shores of gain.
 
But we don’t need all the drama
--or special conditions, for happiness

to visit and stay awhile.
It doesn’t need to be imported,
 
doesn’t need to be Maui
under a full moon,
 
with a special enchanting
someone in tow. Nor do we need
 
all our duckies
finally lined up in a row.
 
Our original mind
is already content
 
standing in any line, sitting in any chair,
or parked in an old jalopy
 
in any Safeway parking lot. 
This mind is empty
 
of all that clutching
to outcomes and conditions.
 
Less picky, more eco-friendly.
Just this is enough.