The Love Map

Love Map

Attention please, you sad and lonelies,
You mean and angries,
You hungry and bitters
You hating so deep and long , fueled by bitterness ,
Pleasuring in revenge,
Laughing and smirking with derision,
Reveling in right, in might, in power sucked from life's nipple
Slaking your thirst in puddles left for dogs in the street.
There is a love feather tickling your nose, there is a charge of love juice washing the bitter taste from your tongue
Releasing the knot of nausea in your gut
There is a hot spring of love in the bitter snow, there is a cool stream of love in the thorny desert,
The life you seek in hatred can only be lived in love, in love, and love has made its mark on you
In your smarting, burning shame.

Excuse me,
You bruised and aching,
You hollowed by fatigue,
You walking zombies taking another step on a crumbling road, carrying a heavy, leaking sack of doubt and fear,
A rain barrel of sorrows that sloshes
Over your urine stained pants
You streaked with dried tears and blood,
Please excuse me.

I want to show you the love map,
The sidewalk leading to the open gate,
The unlocked door
With a magnetic knob that pulls you through the weeds and glass
Down from the 155th floor,
Into the hearth of delight
The simmering fire of generosity
The soft bed of human friendship.



The love map reads:
Yes
.
That is, yes,  yes,
Is the secret password you must whisper in the ear of love.

You must write with your fingers in the mud,
Made from tears and dust and spit
Love
And ask, just remember to ask;
What would love do?
What is love doing now?
Here and now?
And then, more important, you have to say:
Yes.
I will practice yes.  I will look in the mirror in the morning and I will form my lips around the Y and the E and the S,
I will say yes.

And sometimes love
Will be impossible to understand, but with the love map in your hand,
Read until you fall asleep,
Cry and pray, imagining the love map as you sit on the bus,
Scan the love map when you wake in the AM
Before you glance at the news headlines
And love will answer you from the inside out,
With a secret appetite, with a shivering smile, a little chuckle or is it a sob,
A lovely aha,
A soul hug, a full tummy of love.

And when that love bite infects you;
You will not be able to say no,
You will not be able to stumble in the weeds and glass,
You will be standing on the foothold,
Back braced, thighs bending,
With your hand out reached,
Pulling those around you to safety, to the height of the mountain of love,
the solid, solid earth
The seat of God.