KARMA

One lifetime is all we are given?
one lifetime to get it right
to learn, to err, to repent, to be saved?

Unitl death frees us
from this one life we did not choose

Are we born by chance into

privilege and peace

or into oppression and conflict?

Some roam the earth with no home.
Some cram into boats to seek a better life

only to sink beneath the waves.

Some cross borders seeking refuge
to be turned away or placed in cages.

Some struggle a lifetime in survival mode,

falling into the well of grief and despair.

Have we not chosen to come to earth—

this “tavern where drunkards get sober”  

to cry in the wildernessm ask questions

sound a call, gather and share wisdom,
bear witness to evil and good

Free will, fortune, fate
weave through our earthly comings and goings
until everyone will have been everyone else—
other lives, other loves, other loss

Over many lifetimes

coming into being and dissolving
again and again in
constellations of anonymous stars
moving across the heavens