Monk comes home it's a rainy Monday walks to the corner store to see what's changed nothing not the maples, not the people even milk and cigarettes cost the same cause it's not that long that she's been gone Monk comes home reeking of failure— feeling just as empty as her begging bowl what kind of loser flunks yoga she couldn't touch peace up there with a ten-foot soul and it sure seems long that she's been gone pretty sad when you sit on a mountaintop bad pretty dumb expecting the buddha to come and guide you it was pretty up there in that monastery but who cares when you can't even feel the feelings inside you Monk went om just a year ago April She was sure it would bend her to enlightenment But it didn't fly they didn't see eye to third eye it was more like a bad auto accident They said don't feel bad you're not the only one we've had who couldn't finish it shouldn't diminish you namaste, they said, go in peace, my friend go to hell she replied and they said this is exactly the problem So now she's home lying in her old bedroom looking up at the ceiling that she knows so well Can't be denied that she's mostly a screw-up But it really was fun to tell them to go to hell and for just a blip she lets her sense of failure slip yes, she needs a plan but for once it doesn't seem so impossible she can stay for a while get a job, save some money and it won't be long before she's gone