ISOLATION AND SALVATION

I am still afraid of the cell.
Grown men cry at night.
Each mind holds its' own secret terror.
The punishment usually fits the crime.
We are all prisoners in this cell.
The cell of the mind.

Some fill it with pornography.
Some find Jesus!...Praise the Lord!
Others find hobbies.
We delay the inevitable with sports, drugs,
booze, work, whatever...
anything to distract us from the ultimate truth.
We try to fill the void of our aloneness.
The honest come to the realization that:
we all have to die alone with our secrets.

I sit in my cell...contemplating.
It usually has four walls.
Sometimes there are windows.
The outside me a sense of peace,
openness, freedom.
It is an illusion, what I think I see.
There is no peace, my mind tells me...
only darkness.
The final truth is to be dealt with sooner or later.
I wonder what it is?

This life is a bus stop.
Death is the driver.
My ego must die.
We all go for the ride.
No one brings anything special...
just a worn out shell of what once was,
to the beyond, if there is a beyond.

I am rushed to the hospital.
I wake up.
My family is gathered around my bed.
I hear my heart monitor.
They say their goodbyes.
There is a lot of crying.
My eyes open wide as I exhale.
My last breath gurgles out of me.
It's the death rattle heard by all.
The final gag.
It's the end of the road for me.

I see the tunnel.
At the end of it is a pin prick of light!
Wow!...It's psychedelic in here man!
Then I black out.
I wake up...opening my eyes.
I'm laying in the softest field, of the greenest grass!
I see beautiful snow-capped mountains.
My vision is blurry at first, but some forms come into focus.
On a brand new Harley, sits the most beautiful woman with blonde hair, that I have ever seen! Another new Harley Davidson, Road King, with beautiful bags, sits right next to her! I look at myself. My arms are muscled and tan! There is no drooping skin! I'm wearing these "boss" leather chaps, an expensive leather vest, and beautiful detailed cowboy boots! My stomach is muscled and tan!

The beautiful woman says to me: "C'mon you good lookin' cowboy, we got miles to ride before we get to your graduation party." "I'm your date today." Then she says, "Congratulations, you've made it to heaven!"
My mouth drops open...I get on the bike...I smile like a Cheshire cat, as I ride off toward those beautiful snow-capped mountains.