Return {a poem}

When we say return 
let us not return to denial 
or the fog of focusing 
only on our own desires.
Instead, let us turn 
towards something so new 
as to be perpetual— 
that moment of seeing 
the truth so clearly 
that nothing will ever be
what it was in the garden,
no matter how we worshipped 
its apparent innocence.
Beyond those walls 
there was always suffering.
Let us not return to a time
when we could close our eyes,
when we could justify 
inaction or shake our heads
in pity on our way to the centers
of commerce and busy-ness 
that thrive on numbness.
No. Instead, this year, 
in this day and in this season,
let us plunge into the heart 
of how achingly connected 
we are, how the turning 
of this fragile planet 
is not under warranty, how 
the ladder we’ve erected 
where some will always 
have a better view must come down
for good, that we may live 
not in illusion but on the grounds
of what is real, tangible, and true.
This waking, this is the return 
of soul to body, a re-pairing 
so forceful it may hurt, it may jolt 
you away from comfort 
and consolation, and yes, you might 
resist it. Let this moment 
be not a test but an opportunity 
to come back to what has always been 
available to you— depth, feeling, 
and facing what is beneath 
the quiet surface of things. 
Don’t turn away. 
Return.