Learn the alchemy
true human beings know.
The moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given,
the door will open.

Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade.
Joke with torment brought by the friend.
Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets
that serve to cover, then are taken off.

That undressing
and the beautiful naked body underneath
is the sweetness that comes after grief.
The hurt you embrace becomes joy.
Call it to you where it can change.

A silk worm eating leaves makes a cocoon.
Each of us weaves a chamber of leaves and sticks.
Silk worms begin to truly exist
as they disappear inside that room.

Without legs we fly.
When I stop speaking,
this poem will close
and open its silent wings.