SIMPLY HEADS

In the dream
I was climbing to heaven
not flying
nor rising
but something more prosaic
and quicker.

While everyone around me was
slowly
willfully levitating their way
to the next level
I simply took the next step
on the stairs.

I got to the top faster than most
then rested prone in my lawn chair
waiting to greet my peers
in paradise.
When they arrived,
first simply heads
then torsos
then complete souls,
they had little time for me,
so excited were they,
ebullient over their effort
to reach such great heights.

There was drinking and dancing
and prancing and jumping
in the jungle
– did I mention it was a jungle?
Turns out the afterlife is a jungle –
a genuinely joyous rapture
in the final state.

I didn’t feel it
the way they all did.
Something about my strategy separated me
from the army of ecstasy.
I watched as everyone enjoyed
while I lay back,
restless in the evening’s afterlife.

I woke up sweaty
nauseous
anxious over what I done
Maybe I shouldn’t have
put that chili on my eggs.