This World and That World

 

This World and That World

(“Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.” Ephesians 1:3)

I wandered through dreaming and waking,
a visitation of images, stories and places
with characters combined and double cast.
It seems I had won the lottery but lost it
within moments of the next scene my mind conjured.
This world and that world all contained within the
neural impulses
that fired without my command.
My head was leaden, my will forbidden from acting,
and my pain binding me to my bed.
Yet, an hour after waking, far into the long afternoon
I saw the reflection of the pink and clearing sky
in my neighbor’s window.

While I slept unwillingly, I heard phone conversations
and my daughter’s voice coming in the front door.
Yet none of this could move me from the
isolated paralysis that bound me to my bed.
Still, moments after rising, (the same hour as
the pinking clouds)
I saw the neighbor’s Siberian Husky watching
the same sky
from the same window

And the sun and raindrops fell
as evening approached.

I was glad I
never draw my shades.