Stingy Aloeswood

Fear and hurt are lassoes

drawing you through a door.

Lord, Lord, you say weeping.

Green herbs sprout where those tears fall.

Dawn comes; blindness drains away.

Each day is eternity.

Do not avoid your suffering.

Plunge it into the Nile.

Purify your stubbornness.

Drown it. Burn it.

Your body is a stingy piece of aloeswood

that will not let go its healing power

until you put it in the fire.

Now Shams leans near to remind me,

That's enough sourness. No more vinegar.