Sliver of what

what life do you live before language
before the vivid lunatic dances
trips the tongue lust relic last
fabricating death in wistful neon campfire stories
desperate wit raging into that electric night
denying real death
honest unsighing self-true death
the one thriving death of all

don't you know there is nothing to die for
but death itself

what do you dream before you wake the earth
before Aristotle presumes to speak for us rocks and woods
all of us the craggy brained sensitive mercy
us smooth beatific stones sitting hard hermits in
babbling brooks where we are
here here giving moment to moment to what we are
edgeless natives of rain
modest conspicuous nature here
reading moon books and smiling at what we don't know
smashing the haunted damn pottery of Greek ghosts
Greek slivers always darting away from wild sane attention
our pure attention
one thriving attention for all
the life lived
just lived
and lived and lived
and lived

what do you do with that
when you can't say anything
like a lotus grinning in the muck
finding freedom here
wherever here
hearing where nature generously allows flowers in mud
what do you say
can we say nothing
and mean it