"You Can't Be What You Are Not"

you can’t be what you are not


can’t be the water in the pot if you are the pot

can’t reverse the order of things

and be that curving container of cooked earth

if you are the unpredictable liquid inside



but maybe you can become

become

alter transform transmogrify

or however you want to call it

go

to a place

a state a condition a perception

a way of moving through the surfaced variety of what surrounds you

in a way different from Tuesday

or the day before



think therefore

about that baked clay container

didn’t it used to be water

at least part of it was

some moving force curving around bends and rocks

before it was scooped up

mashed with dirt of a special kind

turned round and round

heated up then cooled down

and it thus became

that which could now hold

that which it used to be