Jonah

Jonah

How long can you hold your breath?

I said no long before
God asked anything specific of me.
I preemptively plugged my ears
while doing my own thing,
like writing romantic poems
and joining the Air Force.

My own thing was a lot of work
and bumping into things in the dark.
And it was a lot of left turns
only to end up where I began.

I'm sure it was the Buddha
or an Ancient Greek who said,
Never trust a God
without a sense of humor.

So round and round I spun
while God watched me become dizzy
before finally asking me the question
I didn't want to hear years earlier:
Are you ready to do your soulwork?

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Must not all things at the last
be swallowed up in death?
~ Plato