In The Great Empty

To step outside of my own 
into others’ or no one’s —

to be in the great empty
of no possessions.  To be

conscious only of that which
no one owns, or at the very least

is oblivious to our claims of possession: 
lawn, garden, backyard.  To be present

where that is meaningless.  To look at it,
and be with it, and be of it until

what looks back is conscious in a way
we haven’t recognized, but which

is now obvious and familiar from a past
we did not remember at all till now.

To be present in the world that treats us
as another consciousness, not the only one,

is the one true honor we can afford to seek
on this planet of medals and titles.