Rebirth

(This is not exactly my view on rebirth, nor is it what I believe in myself, but perhaps the afterlife differs from person to person, depending on how said person lived, the choices the person made. Nevertheless, this poem was inspired by another one of my restless dreams.)

REBIRTH

So bright, it shines
Under the closed door
So alive, this light
It draws the darkness
To its vibrant gaze.

There is nothing like it
I’ve seen before
Noiseless, yet so loud
It swallows me whole
Leaves me in a trance.

Lived inside the black
For so long
Floating in a nightmare
Swimming in nothing
An eternity of descent.

Even a dim light
Like the small slit
Underneath this door
Would blind me now
Have me frozen in terror.

White death, I am sure
Awaits me on the other side
But am I not already?
What of this nothingness?
What choice have I?

Had I a form
Surely this light
Would have burned it
As it was, I found myself
Drawing near the white death.

I’ve become too close
I want to stay
The darkness is my home
The blackness my friend
The light overpowers my will.

Had I eyes
I would bind them shut
The knob on the door
Starts its slow turn
The dread behind it unimaginable.

The white death appears
On the door’s side
Growing, illuminating all else
The dark behind me no longer there
The door itself disappears beyond.

Had I legs
I would run away
But the light has won
It envelopes me
A new eternity is upon me now.

Something strange has happened
There is a new feeling
The terror has been replaced
A dead calm has risen
A peace within this light.

The light dims
An abrasion of my fingertips
Against solid earth
I can see again
And with sight, I view the sky.

Never had I imagined
A more beautiful landscape
Even in my restless past
Under the earth’s cover
My back against earth’s crust.

With this new body
I push myself up
I behold my destiny
Outward from this empty field
Onward toward a fresh life.

END