Tectonic Plates (a poem)

Pursuit of self-awareness, never complete
under layers of self-deception
and hidden motives causing
sabotage of self – so much self –
like a rocket ship
in self-destruction mode
exploding into millions of
tiny shards while you’re
circling a planet of selves –

my mind twists, spins, swirls
from ecstatic love and
gregarious brotherhood
to loathing of self
guilt of existing;
Kafka on trial for the hideous crime
he knows nothing about –

love peaks thru
I emerge from selfishness,
grasping desperately at
a desert oasis of love, surprising because
it’s real and the water is immaculate –
falling now, the infinite impermanence
of shifting moods, like turning
tectonic plates beneath me
ready to collide.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons – World’s Major Tectonic Plates – Plates and their motion at various points (in millimeters per year) relative to the African Plate – Source: National Weather Service)