Cleansing So D.H. Lawrence once wrote, "I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry f or itself." I thought about this and couldn't reconcile the suffering of a bird before death and the suffering of a human being before death. What the heck is the point whe n you're a bird? So to get to the bottom of it, I interviewed a bird. Yes. I did. I DID!! *angry face* Anyway, because you can't seem to come to terms with my art I shall re-express t he statement for the cynics who actually believe other things, at face value, ou t of inexplicable convenience. So, to get to the bottom of this, a little birdie whispered in my ear. It whispered a poem. The poem doesn't have a name, because birds don't need thin gs to be named. But the poem has a message, that for humans too, the suffering i n this world before death, is a means of cleansing and pardon in the grand festi val that is the hereafter. I hope DH Lawrence knew this too, that the bird and ergo the person, who suffers in this world, is spared a greater suffering in the next. Strange to say then, that when we observe this in human beings before death, do we hope that it's eno ugh? Does the soul of the departed find itself wishing that it had suffered more in this world? The bird wrote this to get to the bottom of it, because like me, the bird, Guru Loerielall Tanduri, was philosophical and a great get-to-the-bottom-of-itist. Th at is his real name though, because unlike 'things', he is a bird and as such ne eds a name. Birds are not just things. But no, if you're thinking that birds are people too, then no you're wrong. That's actually a stupid thought. So he said. One day long after my final wing flap And I lay my head into that eternal nap My flock will gather in thought and extol The fortune and festival that awaits my soul With a smile and a tear and perhaps some laughter I bore the punishment in this hell, Not the one that comes after See when you hurt and you pain without subside or settle It's not a ruse conjured up to test your mettle When the pain endures the night and it only gets rougher In the next you'll look back and wonder when you did suffer It was a torture indeed with difficulty borne Were it not for this cleansing - there would be reason to mourn But is the mourning hereafter really due For the ones in the flock already passed through? Or in that world is mourned the mindless remiss Of the unclean flock who go easily from this?