I walked into Best Buy
looking for some glasses,
something to take my mind
off the world.
Rows of computers, cell phones, DVDs,
and then I saw a pair out on display.
A salesperson was trying them,
reaching for nothing,
staring right and left
at some great wide scene.
I picked up a pair and put them on,
fuzzy appearances drifted in view.
green and purple swirl like the northern lights,
Can I help you?
Came a voice from the blue.
“Twist that knob and make a selection”
I heard her say, and went ahead.
Suddenly the world came into focus
and I was staring at the top of my head.
Flying all around like a bird,
weightless, bodyless, nothing lacking
as I circled mountains, rivers, forests, and plains,
then lifted on up into the heavens
toward darkness, moon and stars.
My past lives came before me –
one by one, the people I’d been.
I watched a thousand panoplies
play out in action,
my choices, the people with whom I’d sinned.
What is the answer? I followed groping
an unlit path through field and stream,
up a hillside, toward a mountain,
faint light glowing from the top.
Reaching near an old man sat there,
his demeanor saying “do not move
until you have the question
firm and unarguable
as stone in your mind”
Finally I felt the time was now,
life had arrived at this point.
I approached him humbly, my question ready,
and he said “credit or cash.”
I took off the glasses and paid for them
and went outside to my car.
driving down that river of highway
I didn’t get very far.
Over by the side of the road
is where I decided to stay.
In a thousand years when they dig up history
It will be as it is today,
and I’m wearing those glasses forever.
2016-07-07