I have escaped............by Rumi

Once again
I broke free of the chains
of the wicked traps
of this world

Once again
by your youthful love
I was saved from
this fraud-filled wizard
we call life

Non-stop
running day and night
I finally had to cut myself off
from this deadly routine
leaping free as an arrow
from the grip of the cosmic bow

Now i have no more fear
of grief and anxiety
I've learned to compete
with death itself

I lived through my wits
for forty years
now at sixty-two
finally hunted down
I am free from struggle

Bread becomes blood
blood transforms to milk
and now
that I have my wisdom teeth
I am in no need for more milk

~ Rumi
Gazhal 1472
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire",
Burning Gate Press, Los Angeles, 1994.
Art by Christopher Beikmann