Member-only story
In Another Life
I was a dog in another life, a very good
dog, and therefore I was promoted to human.
I loved being a dog. I worked for a poor farmer
tending and herding his sheep…
I had all the love a dog
could wish…
… And one morning
I just did not wake up. They gave me a good burial
by the stream, under the shade of a tree. That was my
end as a dog.
Sometimes I miss him so
I sit in the window and cry. I live in a skyscraper
from where I see a lot of skyscrapers.
I work in a cubicle and barely talk
the whole day. This is my prize for being
a good dog. Human wolves don’t even see me.
They don’t fear me.
~ James Tate (fragments of the poem ‘The Rise’)
*
Personally I don’t care to have a grave or tombstone or even a memorial…And after I’m gone, I don’t care if I’m remembered. I believe our souls are immortal, but I don’t mind if I dissolve into the infinite. The infinite is so amazing and inconceivable that just to be a teeny tiny part of it is actual cause enough for ecstasy.
