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Description
I open my eyes.
I've forgotten my name.
I've forgotten the taste
of water or the touch
of wind.
I've forgotten my face
and my hands and feet.

I remember the boy
who fell on the road
and I remember the weight
of his body as I threw him
out of the way.

I remember the lights
and the sound and the screams
and the honking horns
and the silence that followed.
When time stopped
I thought of her,
and I hoped she would be
waiting for me wherever
it was that I was going.

I open my eyes and blink
seeing nothing but the empty sky.

---

Then he comes, gliding in on
wings as black as night.
I can't move or stand
but he kneels beside me.
A pale hand holds an apple
under the nose I had forgotten I had.
A smell, sweet and wet fills my nostrils
as he takes my hand in his, not corpse-cold
but warm, like a soft hearth fire.
He lifts me to my feet
as if I were made of
nothing but air.

White eyes, bright as a star
shine not with glee or malice
but tears of love—tears of sadness
that a father feels as he holds
the hand of his child
as they drift away
and are gone forever.

Star eyes gaze into mine
and he knows me.
He knows my father
and my mother, my brothers
and sisters, my aunts and
uncles and cousins.

He knows the one
I loved
and lost.
He knows, too,
the boy who fell
and lived.

He speaks to me
in a voice made not of sound
but light
that fills my heart like
cool ocean waters hovering
over hot sand.

She is waiting for you.

Wings made of night sky
unfold as a door opens
--made not of stone
but of far-away music.

It's time for you to go.

Where?

Home.

Description
I open my eyes.
I've forgotten my name.
I've forgotten the taste
of water or the touch
of wind.
I've forgotten my face
and my hands and feet.

I remember the boy
who fell on the road
and I remember the weight
of his body as I threw him
out of the way.

I remember the lights
and the sound and the screams
and the honking horns
and the silence that followed.
When time stopped
I thought of her,
and I hoped she would be
waiting for me wherever
it was that I was going.

I open my eyes and blink
seeing nothing but the empty sky.

---

Then he comes, gliding in on
wings as black as night.
I can't move or stand
but he kneels beside me.
A pale hand holds an apple
under the nose I had forgotten I had.
A smell, sweet and wet fills my nostrils
as he takes my hand in his, not corpse-cold
but warm, like a soft hearth fire.
He lifts me to my feet
as if I were made of
nothing but air.

White eyes, bright as a star
shine not with glee or malice
but tears of love—tears of sadness
that a father feels as he holds
the hand of his child
as they drift away
and are gone forever.

Star eyes gaze into mine
and he knows me.
He knows my father
and my mother, my brothers
and sisters, my aunts and
uncles and cousins.

He knows the one
I loved
and lost.
He knows, too,
the boy who fell
and lived.

He speaks to me
in a voice made not of sound
but light
that fills my heart like
cool ocean waters hovering
over hot sand.

She is waiting for you.

Wings made of night sky
unfold as a door opens
--made not of stone
but of far-away music.

It's time for you to go.

Where?

Home.