The Thin Spaces - Nov 10 2023

 

The Thin Spaces

Nov 10 2023

The thin spaces

where a gossamer veil

separates this world from the next.

A tempting thought,

when even a skeptic like me

would like to believe

in an afterlife.

That the voice of my father

my mother swore she heard

wasn't mere hallucination.

That my dreams

in which dead people appear

are one of those liminal places

where the membrane thins

and ghostly figures

beckon us across.

That this life I’m in

is nothing more than practice;

prologue

for what's to come,

the ever-after

for what came before.

That we are both;

the mourners and departed

all at once.

Even a skeptic would concede

that not all is knowable.

Would even be pleased by the thought

that some mystery still exists,

some possibility

will always be out there

to excite the mind

and stir the soul.

I wonder what he thinks

peering through the murk

from the other side.

That it's us who crossed?

Passed over

aren't real

are haunting his dreams?

How different is this

from the thin veil

that separates us all?

Even in the here and now,

peering out at the world

we're sure we know,

where seeing is believing

and touch proof enough.

The thin veil

between us

and the unknowable other.

Averting our eyes

from the unexamined self.