In a bus from
Liberia to Playa Flamingo
west costa of
Costa Rica
six rows back
not including the
side seats
there are no side
seats
unsure of route,
stop, or destination
Window a free-per-view
screen of stars
The heavens
pulled back
A pantalla
abierta
Cortina quitada
None of these
expressions sum it up
It was as if in
this privileged place a miracle occurred
And the
privileged few in a place without privilege were privileged to witness the
entirety of heaven
The entirety of
truth
Seven veils shed
Eternity revealed
There are two
basic viewpoints of eternity
From the left,
you die and forget
From the right, eternal
knowledge
Horror stories,
both
And every tale a
variation
The same, and don’t
let anyone tell you differently
Tonight there was
no tale
No narration
Because a tale is
a cola is a camino
From ignorance at
the start
To wisdom at the
mecca
Tonight a
wormhole
A bending of time
and space
No need to devise
or narrate
The tv is tuned
to channel 3
And there on the
pantalla
A free broadcast
Without deception
or ego
The perilous
emptiness that is
That undeniably
is
And like skin in
the unprotected sun
It went right
through me
Unprepared
A sudden bout of
eternity
One with the
stars because we are one with the stars
When I was young
I saw a piece of wood and felt the world from the tree’s perspective
I was in gym
class
I am still young,
and I felt the world from eternity’s perspective
From a star’s
view
Through the eye
of chaos which is the order which governs our chaos
I thought, “One
day I will forget you. One day you will
forget me. It will be as if we never
were. Our memories will die with us.”
Only time stands
between us and the stars
And time is a
spongey and unreliable buffer
I grew sad
I wanted to fight
but there was in all apparentness no fighting to be done
There is a
balance beam we walk
A piece of wood
Everything
forever on the right
Nothing forever
on the left
And we wobble
Time
Tonight I fell
But clung
Crawled back up
The bus driver
taking turns like he was racing
Time had
commissioned him not to be late
A 10-minute
program, this
Sneak preview
Don’t show your
hand
The couple in
front of me
Younger than me
More time
The man two seats
in front to the left
Less time
An aging specimen
of health
The two of them
maybe sixteen
Looking at each
other, not the stars
The bus empties
With time
The couple gets
off before the viejo
The anciano
I was distressed
How could I
forget you?
How could this
not be part of eternity?
Every human
action fell off the beam in the face of channel 3
Pure and simple
Idiomatic
Cliché perhaps
The sponge of
time
The sponge of time
Fickle
Fragile
The beam no
longer would
How could I not
be me anymore
How can my
memories die with me
Taking you too in
the great flush
You’re stored in
blood
Which flows with
the heart’s rhythm
You will run out
All of this
All of this
Gone
I panicked
I’m building my
house on a bed of clay
On an earthquake’s
fault line
On a volcano
This is the
wisdom I hoped to obtain
A parting gift
Turn in your
memories at the door
Here is a sponge
Channel 3
announcement
Attention all
viewers
You are eternal
You are nothing
Put your
investment in everything
Put your
investment in nothing
Time is a sock
market
Woolen waste
I changed the
channel
Unable to
aguantar
Which is used for
respiration
And turned my
attention quite by accident to the two
The jovenes
She too turned
her head to him
Pressed her
forehead against his nose
Showed him her
teeth
An exuberant
maladapted animal
Kissed him
Every true action
is a part of eternity, I reminded myself
But I didn’t
Not in that
moment
Earlier
In the flow of
time
A few steps back
on the sponge
Kissed him
My thoughts bled
out of me
My memories
My concerns
Kissed him
And here too was
truth
Kissed him
And I won’t
forget
Kissed him
And I didn’t
worry about eternity for one more second.
