(A reflection on twelve years in therapy and “The Guest House” by Jalaluddin Rumi)

This being human is a smart house.

Every morning a new task.

A checklist, a planner, a fierceness,

some momentary control comes

with an unexpected emotion.

Group and mute them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of burdens,

who desperately sweep your house

empty of its empathy,

still, treat each guest frigidly.

He may be calling you out

for some new analysis.

The memory, the shame, the angry ones,

meet them at the door with a google doc,

and invite them to their prospective compartment.

Untangle and silence whoever comes,

because each has been dropped

as a human inconvenience from beyond.