“Falling Cup” by Brad Hunter

The handle of the cup breaks,

Swallows dance impossibly on the air.

A bell is heard in a mysterious distance

Beyond engine and hammer song,

Beneath tire hum and street hysteria.

A cracked brick catches your eye

And the world stops turning.

Just for an instant, thoughts refuse to rise,

Past and future fall off the edges of time.

Every once in while we find ourselves beyond circumference,

Falling with the freed cup,

Winged in the updrafts,

Listening with the heart’s ear

And briefly glimpsing, as if through a keyhole,

A shadow of nirvana in the empty space of a broken brick,

Untraceable and featureless.

‘Every once in while’

Forever waits with immeasurable patience

For us to step out of the chatter of notion

And the reflecting mirage of appearance—

Into What Is.