To Sherpananda For His Belated Birthday

What do you give a man
who has everything/nothing?

What could Rumi have given Shams
that was not already given?

We see the wine bottle pouring a last drop...
Yet from you it never empties.

I joke with names and build them with fancy
hyphens: Scott-a-sherpa-nanda!

No joke. My kaupina is hidden in another age next to yours.
Can contemporary minds no longer bear truth

like men cannot bear nakedness?
Shame can put herself back in the Garden!

For the man who has everything/nothing
The gift is to be everything/nothing.

This is my gift to you.

DB