Sleep work

Sometimes it's easy
paring the fruit, shelling the kernel,
picking the bones clean dry.

At other times you're sucking
thin wine through a straw
that's blocked and flattened,
or trying to play a flute
with no finger holes.

Who knows the reason
why work can seem easy
or work can seem hard?

Perhaps the work is done
in the coil of the dreaming mind,
long before
any gaudy thoughts unwind.