It was cold in Portland
We crossed the street
surrounded by skyscrapers
necks craned upward
our breath fogging
looking back
to the cocktail lounge
we left behind
on the 40th floor
A cop across the street
busts a crack head
hands held tightly
behind his back
Cars weave in and out
jockeying for position
their lights liquid red and green
on the rain slippery streets
They said it might snow
Light flakes are falling
I pull my coat
tighter around my neck
and I feel the closeness
of the other side
like water rushing
in the background
The invisible eternal
that we emerge out of
into the now
Tonight I slip in
and out of it
So close
the invisible
like death
But not dark death
or mean death
but the space that contains
death which is small
when compared with it
It is so close I think…
if I just turned
fast enough
I would see it
The infinite life
on the other side
and I would turn back around
and know that it is at my back
just there
and that all things that I am seeing
in front of me
are luminous
but temporary
Like the young people
in the play we saw
skin radiating
eyes shining
voices clear
and whose energy when combined
on the stage
created the most brilliant scenes
of the brightest being
and the sweet little girl
that sat beside me
who just for this night
wore her shiny red shoes
in honor of Dorothy
in the land of Oz
It brought me to tears
but I welcomed it
This priceless light of the actors
and their grace
I guess I cried because
I remembered
like I was an angel for a moment
how precious is life on earth
and that each of us
are given lives of moving light
whether bright or dim
colored with such an array
of shades and hue
and set in situations
where the light hits us
just so
when all the while
we are so close to the other side
Not dark death
Nor mean death
But the shimmering
and endless life
that contains it