Meeting in Fifteen

(Fifteen minutes)

(Fourteen minutes )

I stretch my back, growing tall

Like a tree, they say in yoga class. Grow tall, like a tree.

Imagine an invisible thread pulling my head to the ceiling and beyond,

To the sky, to the heavens.

My face breaking through the clouds

(Thirteen minutes )

To see God.

I drive my shoulders down to the earth,

Grounding them, they say, becoming one with the ground.

But really, I’m one with the floor of my cubicle.

The 1980’s carpet that smells,

(Twelve minutes )

And lost its original color decades before.

Have I lost my original color?

Imagine there is no carpet beneath me,

No two floors of workers, of busy bees, beneath me,

Twiddling their thumbs faster and faster

To clinch sales faster and faster

(Eleven minutes )

To hit goals faster and faster

To move numbers faster and faster

To make money faster and faster.

Imagine there is no lobby, no building at all.

Imagine there is no foundation.

(Ten minutes )

How deep do we have to drive, how grounded do we have to be,

Before we finally find the ground?

The earth--Mother earth, they call her.

I drive my shoulders

(Nine minutes )

Into her like a spade, sharp and strong.

Pointed, determined, seeking, sinking into her layers.

Through the soil, through the silt as my head

(Eight minutes )

Rises beyond the galaxy.

Is God in the stars? Or the earth?

Or even, could it be true,

(Seven minutes )

That God is in the building?

In my cubicle?

This carpet?

These trinkets on my desk

(Six minutes )

Are sacred objects: The Shroud of Turin,

The chains of St. Peter.

(Five minutes )

I get up and go.

I have a meeting.