fireball

i am a fireball, learning how

to be a lake. both are me;

a lake of fire walking across

itself to kiss your forehead

my dear, take my hand

walk with me where Mother

Nature has bitten off

the asphalt road        here

we can be generous with

our whole hearts like the

Sun, the fireball i offer you

from within my very chest.

This poem was inspired by Enlightened Society Assembly held in August 2016 at Karmê Chöling.

Paul Singleton III is the author/illustrator of ‘Sometimes Mama’s Just Like That’, ‘When My Hero Left’, and ‘free movements’. His work has appeared in Maple Leaf Rag anthology, in NPR’s On Being blog, and in Duke University’s Invisible Bear anthology. He is currently a monk at Gampo Abbey for the Lion Year Program.