Enlightenment

There's a certain cage

Defined by the rules.

There's only so much

One can learn in a school.

There are certain powers

One cannot learn from a Jedi.

Entrenched deep in battle

With the Whiskey Devil,

I learned perhaps more

Than I knew I was enrolling for.

I never knew that enlightenment

Could be so cloaked, so shrouded,

In a raggedy old coat

That sunders my head

With all the gifts of the sun,

and as the cracks in my head

Admit more of the light I'm spoiled by,

I writhe and reel and rankle,

and, at last, I rise,

Though I have not recovered.

I will never be the same,

But perhaps the price has come

With some small improvement.