Our steps interlocked,
Michelle asks me, “What do you need,”
and it occurs to me that everything
I love can and will be taken from me.
The wind that fills the sail
will eventually shred it.
The child who curves her body
into the breast will wean, will grow,
will leave. It is not true that I need nothing,
Oh Maslow, you gave us the map,
but an affinity with nothing is
perhaps what I need.
First Noble Truth: Life is full of suffering.
Second Noble Truth: Life is full of suffering because we cling to things.
Ergo: Perchance, “affinity with nothing is…what [we] need,” indeed.
That Maslow comes up in a poem is perfect! The hierarchy of poetic references dictates that he would have to come up, eventually. And he did.
Thanks for that:>)