at-one-ment

rush through traffic
win a few dollars
live one more week
time disappears
appetites melt

and yearnings will never be written

enter an office, the restaurant, a street
a sea of faces invites
and ignores us
carefully seated in similar chairs

(is this the best of all worlds?)

we resemble each other

meet and don't greet the aspirants
they presume the good news:
an Announcement, a Banquet,
Luxurious Prizes

look into the effortless congress
and see Mystery

or

enjoy the world-weariness
having a latte, a pretzel
the whole cake

then, greet all the strangers
and test the estrangement
of unwitting allies

feel Truth pound from under the heart
of unusual friends,
our secret companions

as syllables and air
reveal in the twilight
rising above us

(all content Copyright National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, 2000-2003, do not use without permission)