A Cry From Down The Rabbit Hole In The Time Of The Pandemic - Max Reif

[Larry Robinson]

A Cry From Down The Rabbit Hole In The Time Of The Pandemic

I have gone
down the rabbit hole
chasing a bright
promise of information,
which I believed to be
the quick tail of elusive truth,
but so far, down here,
have scarcely gotten
even another glimpse!

You see, I thought I already 
possessed that commodity:
that truth was safely inside me.
I pursued my daily 
rounds of life with confidence,
eager to make my sojourn here
a vehicle for truth’s stamp
each time the sun came up.

Were those the days!
And in summer, I would travel
to faraway places and sometimes 
my holiest spot on Earth, 
to refresh those inner wellsprings.

Now my world has been fractured—
cloven asunder by Duality’s sword
in the form of bold voices
speaking into my world
what I considered nonsense,
with straight face
and many earnest points
and copious hyperlinks.

My confidence—
easily shaken when challenged,
a lifelong problem—
falters and I think:
“Could they be right?”

I languish in this rabbit hole
of dualistic  parry-and-thrust,
for my Beloved of my heart says
all are One, and even more: 
“Inscribe these words on your heart. 
God alone is real. 
Nothing matters but love for God.”*

Oh, Beloved!
How do I recover the vision 
of Oneness You gave me,
which I enjoyed—
let’s not exaggerate, though,
it was never continuous—
before I dove
down this rabbit hole!

They call this cognitive dissonance,
a fancy name for confusion,
for a dragon whose smoke
obscures the clarity of Truth!
A virtual destruction
of the wholeness
I thought I knew.

Show me how to restore 
the perception of Oneness
to my double-vision mental eye!

Those  contrary voices:
How can I see they are You as well—
that there is no “right” or “wrong”,
but only You?

What am I not getting?
God was. God is. God will be.
How can I not see this? 

Do what You must, Beloved!
Bang me on the head! Burn me alive!
Skin me and turn me inside out!

If this is all a pang of re-birth, 
please, please, slap me on the ass 
and get me the hell
out of here soon!

	- Max Reif






“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
Wendell Berry



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