If I experienced it

I wouldn't recognize it,
I wouldn't understand it,
I wouldn't know what was
happening,
and I wouldn't be able
to put it into words.
Lao-tzu told me that if I could
explain it, I hadn't touched it.
The Cloud Man of Athens
said it was all just forms.
And the old sage of Konigsberg
said the prison I'm in wouldn't let me
see it anyway.
It's there somewhere,
(the very definition of "there")
free-standing,
existent,
essential beyond all purity,
that which is,
and yet it will forever
dance enticingly
beyond my grasp,
like a butterfly
flitting away from
an awed two year-old.
I'll never be able
to do anything
except sit in the cave
watching the puppet shadows
on the wall, knowing that
at least,
I'm one of them,
and contenting myself
with that.