Trying to Wake Up

By Thomas Caterer

Craving the false signifiers of sincerity
is like sustaining yourself only on the thought of food
it carries no weight
substance is found in true compassion
and it may not always glitter
or make itself known to those
who chose blindness
because it was easier than bearing witness to suffering

Waking up is easy once you know how
impossible when you try
for when you try you do not know
wakefulness is in the sun, in the smiles of those you love,
in the warmth on your skin, in sex and birth,
wakefulness is in the darkness, the fears, the pains,
it is in all the deaths, it is the way of things