Dear hungry ghost deep within my body
Welcome to this new day of existence in this 30th year of life
Please come, blinking into the sunshine, for this moment,
Sit down beside me and enjoy a sip of genmaicha
I am hear to give you a safe and permanent dwelling
Right here in my heart, you’ll have a cozy room
You will no longer need to wander for nourishment,
The kitchen will always have soup and hot water in the kettle.
I know it’s hard to be nourished, so try to drink the tea slowly,
Letting the heat radiate and warm your long and narrow throat
When you are done with you sips of tea, come tell me
What is it that you want, dear one?
I wander to wander and play like a child
Without hurrying or being told to study or be practical
I want to celebrate in poetry, dance, music,
Without judgment of my aimlessness
I want to play dress-up and twirl and jump and run
And I want you to play too, Melanie
To be lost in the delight of conscious un-self conscious joy
And then I want to sit and stare at the sky
I want to be held and cuddled and swaddled in many blankets
Laid to rest in the earth, ingesting the sweet air of a spring summer day
Catching at the butterflies dancing (I am a monarch butterfly, Melanie)
Walking down the red clay earth in bare feet
Love me as I am, let my wild creating spirit roam freely
Build me up, construct new things with me entirely from
Our imaginations, let our life together be an expression of our
Wild aspirations for our world in love
And then maybe my belly will be full,
perhaps the joy of our aimlessness will be my cup of tea
the movement in our dance the nourishing soup
perhaps this life can hold food enough to sustain my hunger
Dear hungry ghost, I am with you.
Please eat slowly as the days pass
I will offer the fruits of my practice and
sit beside you with my own steaming cup of broth.
