Ending Meditation

Hatha breath gone, I am a corpse.
on the cold- as- marble ground
I seek to feel nothing
in a dark room of women.
Baggy shirted and barefoot we
have behaved like animals
angry cats, chickens,
a wounded pigeon.
Here and there,
down dogs -slow to become
like planks, spines more
like a backward L than a C
roll down, rock back
and land flat, stopping short
of balance.
………….If there were time
enough in the battle of expanding
stomach, exhalation of weak limbs,
of aches and strivings- perhaps
a soul could learn to yield
gracefully. Instead, I fight
and shake, wiggle worm-like
under the weight to exhaustion,
welcome direction, welcome
the permission to stop,
guided meditation
that peacefully urges rest,
to forget about everything
to picture yourself warm,
happy, on a beach,
a personal paradise.
Imagine your life as a movie,
the film has run out
It’s okay, it is quiet
Let it all go—
There comes a brightness of peace
and I am a snowflake
against the white of god’s eye

*Tony Fusco has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Southern Connecticut State University. He is the 2005 editor The Connecticut River Review the journal of the Connecticut Poetry Society, and Caduceus, the poetry anthology of the Yale Medical Group Art Place. He has been editor of the Southern News and the poetry anthologies High Tide and Sounds and Waves of West Haven. His work has or will soon appear in: the Connecticut Review, Louisiana Literature, the Red Rock Review, The South Carolina Review, The Paterson Review, Freshwater Review, Folio, Elm, Long River Run, Twilight's Ending, Laurels, Beanfeast, Vintage, Chiron, Lips and the Orphic Lute. His book Jessie's Garden published by Negative Capability Press in 2004 has been nominated for the Connecticut Center for the Book's book award. His poetry has won prizes in several contests including: The Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, The Alan Ginsberg Poetry Contest, The Eve Cummings Poetry Prize, The Leslie Leeds Contest, The Southern Connecticut Graduate Poetry Contest. He is a member of the Connecticut Poetry Society, the New England Poetry Club and the Elm Writers group. He has served on several panels, as contest judge and on workshops at various writer's conferences. Tony produces West Shore Poets a television poetry series at CTV, works for the Yale Medical Group and lives in West Haven, CT.