<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I Was a Dancer Before I Was a Cowboy, and I Know!<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I pull my pen from the debris<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">of my breakfast table, to wait<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">to read Rumi<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Two Ways Of Running shows its face,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">but I do not begin before I begin this.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I halt before the well.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Down deep in the dark,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">pure water awaits my idolatrous thirst. <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Patient and old, it has gathered itself,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">and through the sieve of earth and dirt<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">worked itself free of purity and impurity both,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">and offers itself to my eyes<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">only what is too dark to know without it.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I would like to clap a glad hand here,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">because gladness to speak to you<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">heartens me, though my face may be glum.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Don’t be fooled. Two Ways of Running<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">are as present in this pen<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">as once they were in Rumi.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I would rather sleep than deceive you.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">For I have no advice,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">nor no admonition. Oh, if my life were only<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">different, but its’s not. <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Grasp me ere I fall.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">Help me to the vast cot of slumber.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">When I wake, I’ll surely kiss you.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Bruce Moody</p></div></body></html>