Tao of Tea

It is clear to see
and sometimes painful to watch
the throes of agony
he endures
in order to know.
He says he will quit soon
because exhaustion
and this endless torment
might be getting the best of him.

On some afternoons still
he knocks on the door
of someone who appears to know.
This one who appears to know
has burned all of her books
taken her certificates down
and protests loudly to have
only the knowledge of nothing at all.

She shares this lack of knowledge
along with cups of peppermint-nettles-nothing tea.
Sometimes the visitor cries hard
because of his belly full of dredged-up grief
sometimes because of his unresolved joy
occasionally he laughs out loud at his own folly
and is precious and earnest if nothing else.
Mostly, he comes for the tea.
This is known by the one who knows nothing
based upon often finding the empty cup
placed mindfully on the table by the door.