Emptiness

"It's because of all this emptiness, isn't it?" she asked the man
with the golden smile.

"It's because we're so perfectly human and we aren't beautiful
statues and  we sometimes cherish ugly thoughts and feelings and
our fascination with desires and aversions is a tango
along the loneliest road to all our hells, and more often than not,
we don't know which is which, isn't that so?" she asked the man
with the golden smile.

"It's because the sky is so perfectly blue
and the rain falls with rainbows sometimes,
and the tongue craves something bittersweet,
Habanero peppers, iced coffee in the jasmine summer
or hot chocolate in the cold silent night
something intoxicating with lemons or limes,
perfect red ripe mangoes,
a prayer of hope, or a white powdery line
to make us forget the awful truth, that only the skin
begs for comfort and love."
she said in her best matter-of-fact dress.

She cut the silver cord and the Buddha smiled.