El Rio Debajo del Rio

Refuse to fall down.

If you cannot refuse to fall down,

refuse to stay down.

If you cannot refuse to stay down,

lift your heart toward heaven,

and like a hungry beggar,

ask that it be filled,

and it will be filled.

When someone says, "We're saying the same thing."

Say, "We are not saying the same thing."

When someone says, "Don't question, just have faith."

Say, "I am questioning, vato, and

I have supreme faith in what I think."

When someone says, "Don't defy my authority."

Say, "There is a higher authority that I follow."

Wherever the land is dry and hard, you could be the water ...

or you could be the blade disking the earth open;

or you could be the acequia, the ditch that carries water from river to fields;

or you could be the just engineer mapping dams that must be taken down,

and those which would serve the venerable all, instead of only the very few;

or you could be the battered vessel for carrying water by hand;

or you could be the one who stores the water, protects it, blesses it or pours it;

or you could be the tired ground that receives it;

or you could be the scorched seed that drinks it;

or you could be the vine green-growing overland in all wild audacity ...

If there is an ancient secret to caring for and mending the significant lacerations to this “Oh-my-dear-God-beautiful” earth we’ve been given, by soul’s light it might be just a tiny four-word prayer from Creator to humanity:

“Please, just start anywhere.”