THE TWO TRUTHS

You Know My Name

I know your name.

Not the true one.

Stop.

Not pause.

Stop.

Lift your head.

The stars have come down low enough to hear you breathe.

Do not speak loudly.

They have heard louder men than you.

They watched them divide the water, name the Ocean, and promise dynasties to stone.

The promise: perpetuity.

They think theres power in the written words.

they wrote it down.

They own what they name.

Lift your head.

There is a star missing.

It carries your name.

The true one.

You did notice the gap.

At the cold rim of sleep.

In the black glass of a midnight window.

Above the roads you refused to take.

Do not seek it.

It all began with a seeking.

What you seek was hunting you.

It does not know your name.

The true one.

Keep it locked. Keep it hidden.

Beyond the last house, in a field of grass, a frameless door is open.

It has no wall attached to it.

It was opened by the first wind,

After the first fire went out.

Everyone who finds it says the same three things:

they were not seeking it,

they had somewhere else to be,

they were carrying it.

You are carrying it now.

Do not call it grief.

Do not call it guilt.

Do not call it love.

At the threshold, The Inspector will ask:

What is thy load.

Proffer: a question.

Questions are forbidden beyond this sill.

Say: Then I have brought nothing.

Nothing!?

That is the lightest thing in creation.

Do not believe him.

Nothing has broken more backs than stone.

Then he will ask your name.

The true one.

Do not surrender it.

That is what he is seeking.

Inside, the table is set.

A cup.

A knife.

A place kept for the Answer.

Do not seek the Answer.

You have prayed for it since you first looked at the looking glass.

It is a trap.

It is always a trap.

Do not give them your name.

The true one.

Do not sit.

Sit down.

The night is the width of a single heartbeat.

The night has been going on for seven thousand years.

Both your hands are empty now.

One is a closed fist.

One is open to the dark waters.

Lift your head.

Now

Above the field, the missing star has taken its place.

It never left.