In the hospital charnel ground

Suffering is so tangible.

No hiding, no pretending,

I can hear the eerie call

of our human condition

echo down the empty hallways.

Beyond the borders we’ve built

Cutting through our beliefs

No pretense no choice

Living exposed in the rawness of experience.

Flayed open in the immediacy of suffering,

They ride on the last rays of their hope.

Through the power of the blessings of the lineage

      and my teachers,

I find myself here roaming the corridors, praying for

       all my old mothers.

Masquerading as a patient, I am free to move about

     and repay all my mothers’ kindness—assuaging

      their suffering in whatever way I can.

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Jennifer Gordon

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