State Of Unknowing

How White Are Bones?

Contemplate this -
you cannot view the sky
through clouds of unknowing
we cannot tell what comes.

The Mindfulness guru mutters
focus on nothing – empty your mind
as if it were a storage container
crammed with forgotten things.

She doesn't get hijacked by the sound
of her imagined feet
on a stark metal floor,
a glimpse of an abandoned toy.

I clear my head again, seek
that state of unknowing though I'm
on the top of a Tibetan mountain,
stumbling towards the edge.

My mind explodes with a snuff of musk,
keening pigeons, an alarm
from someone else’s day, that creak
walruses and leather sofas share.

Other people’s experience
crowding in to fill my vacuum.
Why does this always feel
like I'm practicing for death?