Yesterday,
I died.
Soul free from body, I watched
Mourning smiles and jaunty dirges,
A celebration of life.
Then, it was time to go.

I asked them where I could find my parents.
At the end of the light
Through a multitude of falling stars
Crystals thrown as darts into velvet evening.
They said,
They’d greet me, but
Wouldn’t want me
And that I’d see why
So I went.

On the way, I stopped
At the post office
I’m coming, I told the postman
To nothing.
The dead cannot mix with the living.
But they tried (because the movies said so),
And it was okay:
They had an eternity to succeed.

The fortunate ones sought answers
Huddled in churches,
Father, what is eternal life?
I stopped in a window,
Overlapping the glass kaleidoscope,
Waiting for an answer.
A gift, incorruptible,
A final resting place for everyone, to be
Happy.
Maybe one day, I would know it.

On the way, I stopped
I asked them where I could find the famous.
There they were, on the benches
Stalin playing blindfold chess with
Hamlet’s father. A Ukranian Jew the arbiter.
I asked the father if it was true.
No, maybe.
Hamlet was in Thailand:
Promised to visit, but not yet.
And it was okay:
He had an eternity to fulfill it.

As the air grew fluffy,
I waltzed towards the cosmos
Every step lighter
Basking in the black and the scattered sky.
And with every step, I understood
But pressed on,
One Last Mission
At last,
There.

Breathless, wordless
They greeted me and missed me
And missed my greeting.
I told them the truth
And their truth
By saying goodbye.
Unchained from the earth,
To be chained again,
I finally felt
free