No-Self

For long — sometimes too long —
Nothing comes
To replace the demolished ruins
Ashes and dust cloud
Where once stood the mirage —

Long had the journey been
To realise the self —
And one day, in an instant
The whole edifice collapses, dissolves —
Like a snowflake in fire

Yet, you remain —
Astonished and baffled
What does one do
Without aspirations and goals
With nothing to grasp
What moves you — drives you

Putting one step in front of another —
For long, too long — living goes on
Until you lose all hope
Of being anything but husk

Somehow
Even the emptiness erodes
Washing away the seer, the you —
Leaving no one to look inwards
Or outwards

Just a plain
Ordinary world
As it had always been —
Without looker
The looked
Without a self in between