This is a poem I wrote in 2013, when I was thirstily reading and listening to everything I could find produced by Buddhist teacher and intellectual jester Alan Watts. One night, I dreamt that Alan and I sat in a treehouse from my childhood, playing an odd harp, composing ad hoc limericks, shanties, and meditations.

This poem is not lifted from or referring to that dream. It is more like a letter thanking him for his company upon waking.
~

before I was
told & taught to eat sleep sin fuck talk walk grin think look see
& look away (& how) – to say ah and
say I, I
pumped my heart, I
grew my hair, I
shaped my bones, I
bit my teeth, bit
the words “my teeth,” chewed,
swallowed &

became, through careful study,
only what I permit myself –

this time &
every time.