Hospice
Hospice has a pamphlet
that maps out
the end-of-life stages
where the pathway to death
can be followed
like a roadmap
That both fascinated me
and brought me comfort
but I could never figure out why
It had a community feel to it
Something we all do in the same way
but I couldn’t escape the fact
that we all die alone
and there is no community in that
Until I heard a Buddhist explanation of death
We are all droplets of water
that spray up from the ocean
Your droplet travels
up and up and up
until it falls back down
to the water
to rejoin
the collective
consciousness
of the warm ocean
The end-of-life stages
are the rungs of a ladder
funneling all us back
down into the embryotic peace
of our collective consciousness
Where we are no longer haunted
by the poor-life decisions
we made
alone
Jason Fisk lives and writes in the suburbs of Chicago. He has worked in a psychiatric unit, labored in a cabinet factory, and mixed cement for a bricklayer. He was born in Ohio, raised in Minnesota, and has spent the last few decades in the Chicago area. www.jasonfisk.com
