I DIED

Near death experiences

Are common to life

I have experienced a few

In car, on ladder, the deck, cliff and bike,

Medical strife

But death is a different thing:

Dead for only a minute by earth clock

Seemed an eternity

My journey was surreal

As what I had expected

Was not

It was dark and unwashed

As I wandered about wondering

This tunnel-tiny light

Suddenly upon me

Zooming into all-encompassing

Peaceful bright-ness

Beckoning

“Step forward”

I did

A full-filling voice

Explained

“It Is not your time”

That I had much more

To accomplish back down the line

I instantly understood

Blessed

I returned unsad

To a seeming

Thousands staring Gathers

Garnered round my bed

Looking speechless, shocked, aghast

“What?”

I said

Not one spoke a word

Some reached as to grasp at my aura

“We’ll I gotta get going

got lots to do”

Puzzled people path parted Lazareth-like

Responding

To unspoken question,

“Heaven? Heaven is great

But can wait”

Amen

tom tenbrunsel

Poet Laureate of the Hereafter

Author’s Note: Why do poets entertain the edge of death so much? Easy because it’s uncharted waters for all and wonton for explanation. We know about birth and life (although some woke fools argue when life begins. But they’re misinformed fools). We wanna know about death and especially that transition between life and death and life after life. So enter the poet and the poet’s spirit writer, with license to poeticize death. And VOILA!

tom tenbrunsel

Carl Sandburg Writer 2023

I died before my ??? -ith birthday.