The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3 - Mary Mackey

[Lawrence Robinson]

The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3

It's easy to love
through a cold spring
when the poles
of the willows
turn green
pollen falls like
a yellow curtain
and the scent of 
Paper Whites
clots
the air
but to love for a lifetime
takes talent
you have to mix yourself
with the strange
beauty of someone
else
wake each morning
for 72,000
mornings in
a row so
breathed and
bound and 
tangled
that you can hardly
sort out
your arms
and 
legs
you have to
find forgiveness
in everything
even ink stains
and broken
cups
you have to be willing to move through
life
together
the way the long
grasses move
in a field
when you careen
blindly toward
the other 
side
there's never going to be anything
straight or predictable
about your path
except the 
flattening
and the springing
back
you just go on walking for years
hand in hand
waist deep in the weeds
bent slightly forward
like two question
marks
and all the while it
burns 
my dear
it burns beautifully above
you
and goes on
burning
like a relentless
sun

	- Mary Mackey