Midnight Orchids

(A poem about non-attachment)

I kept knocking
Softly at first
Then louder
Until my arms ached
And my heart wore thin
Like paper
Too long in the sun

They did not answer
Maybe they heard
Maybe they had left a long time before
They were there once
The doors told me so

I stood outside their doors
With hope
Like a candle
Thinking a shadow might appear 
In the flicker
Of a fading light

Maybe
If I just waited long enough
I knocked
Tears made blots
In the dust

Time stood still
As I pleaded with my echo
Begging to enter a place
That housed silvery webs
Of lapsed memories

I remember them sometimes
Their echoes
Not good enough
Never enough

I turned to the Silence
Not in bitterness
But with wisdom

Now I see
Other doors were already open for me
Unlocked
To spaces
Filled with light
The alchemy of guilt and regret

With a Beginner's Mind
No more knocking
No more cramped spaces
Where I was forced to fit

I found the Key
Meant only for me
Opened to places 
Where I could BE
In the Sacred Stillness
Free