Incarnation of Now

How many lives have I lived and forgotten?
How many times have I gazed into the mirror
through different colored eyes?
If I could remember everything I have lived
how different would I be?
These lives, these bodies
that have held me
are all resting in our home
as I move about this world once more.
How many times has death taken me
in youth and in age and infirmity?
I do not have those memories
but I keep living
tied to the wheel of existence.
I am learning
and I will keep learning still.
Seeking ultimate freedom-
how many more lives
yet remain.

The Many Lives of Ghosts

The eternal lives of ghosts

All the lives I've led in my heart.

Are we so helpless?
Are we more than this?
Caught between lives,
This can't be all of it.

Other Windows

His father suffered a heart attack 

several weeks ago.

When he was in the hospital

they discovered 

he had stage 4 lung cancer.

My friend was told in November

that she has stage 2 breast cancer.

We are the same age.

She is married and they have

a young daughter.

My father is almost sixty

and still works two jobs.

We had breakfast on Christmas

morning. My sister who is 

a registered nurse was at work. 

My seven year old brother opened

his presents while my father

took pictures with the camera

that is older than all of his children.

He was as happy as we all were then.

Future Past Lives

Two Way Mirror

Pictures of women you've loved,
their boyfriends, fiancées, husbands,
and children posing in their happy homes

you realize how the years have passed
slowly enough for them to find partners
and bear children.

Expected lives of normalcy and tranquility,
easy lives marred by the uneasy nature of Life.
The world is filled with them.

You begin to wish it were you.
That you were their boyfriend or husband.
That you were holding your first newborn.

You wonder what it is you hold on to.
What of yours has been so valuable
to forsake that world of experience?

Is it the life you seek?
You don't know-
can't know.

So many happy lives
all staring back-
wondering how you've been.