My eyelids prised apart
And yet it’s not as it seems
What is this place?
Who are these I cannot see?
This flesh is unfamiliar
It does not feel like home
My mind ajar; reality is torn

I have passed on
Beyond the realms I believed defined
Yet why is it I still breathe?
The mirror shows me something I cannot unsee
An unfamiliar reflection
A face that is not my own

I touch the lips, the nose the mouth
The stranger in the glass mimics and obeys

One more ride around the sun
In another form of life, another
Breath is taken from me
And ousted from another point of view
This skin I feel is not my own
I see the world through different eyes
I have been given the time to last
A chance to live again

Distraught and confused I try to piece
Together this absurd circumstance
Holding the glass before me
I call for answers but no reply
How do I identify? How do I conform?

The obituary speaks the truth
It tells that I have moved beyond the veil
Yet I am still aware, alive
The gravestone reads my given name
And the bones that lay beneath
Sing stories of my days

This is not what I believed
Would follow after death
Should I be grateful to still be here?
But I still crave my former shell

Is this the norm should I conform?
None of this is the truth
Fragrant air and beauty soil
Cannot prepare for this end

A Chance to Live again
To leave my mark upon the earth
A Chance to Live again
Consciousness emerging from its shell

I cannot feel the soil beneath my feet
The leaves between my fingers touch no nerve
Something is missing, something is wrong
That something was once mine and now it is lost

I cannot consume, I cannot elate
I feel no lust I gather no hate
I cannot live in this form any more
I wish to return to which I was first born

One more ride upon the earth
The aegis winds of afterlife
Sting my salted face
I cannot believe that I can live again