The Difference Between

Yourself and Your Self

Is as simple as 

night and day

One can only be

put on, while

the other can be

taken away.

One like paint

on a canvas,

the other

an image

that fades.

One that knows

all the answers

while the other

plays solo 

charades.

One is awake

and responsive,

the other asleep

in its bed.

While the first

is one with nature,

the second lives

on in its head.

My advice to you

every evening is

take yourself off

and

lay your self down,

drape it on a chair

if you have to

then sit in silence

all around.

Be barely you

and hardly there

knowing everything

has its disguise.

Try to be true

as the look

that accrues

in the depth of

a wise man’s eyes.

When there’s

no stopping

anything from

happening

and nowhere

else to go,

nothing to see,

nothing to hear,

be vulnerable as

a winter crow.

That’s when 

your contrasts

reach their zenith;

darkness and light

both needed

to call your

shadow home.

09/07/21