WANTING TO BE REAL

Doors are 

so easily 

made into 

metaphors.

But for 

the Buddhist 

on Death Row

a door’s 

an idea

wanting

to be real,

to be taken 

in hand, held –

the knob, the handle –

and pushed 

or pulled

with the strength,

weight and will 

that’s one’s own.

Give this man 

an actual door

to open

and he will cross

a threshold

neither his meditating 

mind nor jailer

could deliver him to:

the simple freedom 

of fending 

for himself.