Leap of Fate

(In honor of the Maui sunset cliff jumping ceremony - Lele Kawa)

K A Gonzalez - March 21, 2017

Tonight I crawled up the crags and rocks,

Relatively young ones they were,

Formed by recent island eruptions.

These stones, not yet smoothed by the trials of time.

Unlike me, somewhere halfway through this physical journey,

Worn and shaped by my many choices,

Some good, some bad - yet all mine, I thought,

That it cast a reflection on my mortality.

Then the guide came, bearing a torch of flame

Called out in a foreign yet familiar tongue.

He thanked the earth for his time here

Bowed, ran right past and called out again

For the time had come for his personal transition.

I saw him run off to the edge of the rocks,

Effortlessly hopping from grain to gravel

And lighted a path along the way.

At the end he turned to the biggest of fires

Our beloved sun, sinking just above the horizon.

With final breaths he genuflected to all four directions,

Taking one last look at the land, sky and sea.

And the torch that once burned so brightly,

His life force - earthly, proud, and vane

Was cast into the endless sea.

Then with his body, no longer lit with fire

Leaned forward from the cliff and fell without shame.

The ripples stirred deep in my soul

As my hands and feet gripped and held on,

But to what? To this physical illusion?

No longer...

I felt a craving to make the journey,

The only one that could satisfy

And end this life of apprehension and worry.

It was time to let go.

So I made my way to the edge

One carefully placed step at a time.

It was there I made my last stand

And stood before my own fears.

Far down below, the water waited.

With one last goodbye

I felt the gravity, bent my legs

And leapt into eternity.

The aquatic grave accepted my body

And washed it one last time.

All the sins and transgressions,

Once tattoos on my tattered soul

Unravelled…

In suspended animation there was a pause,

A brief moment between the here and there.

The healing was instant, my time had not yet come,

And the ocean washed me back ashore.

Naked and exposed, I stood before the many,

Ironically not a one saw me there

For they were all engrossed in their egos,

But I loved them just the same.

The night had come, and the dreams began,

This time more colorful than before.

And as I laid my head to rest

I knew that I had indeed passed,

For I was no longer the same as before that leap of fate

And my life had again just begun.