Where we born with an infinity of lives at our feet -- chosen by how one steers all the forks in one's road? Or, are all those alleged forks false gods?
POEM: Counterfactual Life
3
Warm light filters through the window, killing the perfect night. The gravity of bed still holds - as eyelids deny sight. And life's order would wrench me out from under the cover, but for the allure and the bliss of my love, and lover. Why must the sun be on the march? Why must we heed its place, and surrender that entwinement - chest pillow against face?
She was a remote viewer, so they said. They hoped she'd see beyond the bunker wall, but she'd only see where eyes were live, not dead. She saw conversing spies out in the hall. She heard whispered words on the monster's ball. But she could never see inside a crypt - 'less breached by drifter or derelict. You see, she borrowed eyes as well as ears. Somehow she drilled her way into strange minds. She knew their secrets, but also their fears. And if one thing could make a mind unwind, it's taking all one's fears to be confined within a shell loaded with its own dread, walking one's demons where angels fear to tread. They sought the perfect spy, but got madness. Who knew she'd look home to see a dark cell. They'd tried to shrink noise, but broke the badness. She'd take trips to their minds and bring her Hell. She'd never try to kill- just let brains swell, to waterlog with horrors and demons, 'til they committed killings and treason. And so she found freedom, but not saneness.
I lie on the sloping hillside; damp grass tickles my neck. I hear the bleating beasts kibitz as dogs keep them in check. My eyes closed to the azure dome, until eyelids grow dim. I open wide to see the sky, and note that it grows grim. It's time to consult my sheepdog, "Should we beat it, or stay?" He barks to me, "Now can't you see, the clouds 're dirty wool gray?" "I see it clearly as my hand, but what does that shade mean?" "It means you're not a shepherd, and you may need the latrine."
In my dream, the city stretched out beyond what I could see. Colorful concrete pillbox roofs spread to infinity. Oh, such an infinite city must have some great allure. Miracles, mysteries, mayhem, and madness - that's for sure. What secrets reside behind those thick and dampening slabs? What unknown fortunes have been lost, that now are up for grabs? How many souls are lost right now? Panic starting to rise. How many will be found in time due to those spying eyes? There's some magic in this city, I'm sure that there must be. For everything can happen when you stretch to infinity.