#70: When The Show's Souled Out, It Helps To Know A Scalper (The Soul)

So Take Some Comfort, Now You Passed.
Hell, That Doorway Couldn't Last,
And Here You Are In Stark Contrast
To Dirt And Wormy Eaters.
Your Flesh Has Come To Now Be Cast,
Ecclesioust . . . Ecdysiast . . .
Your Senses Will Be Flabbergast
By Spirit Looks And Meters.


{Spirit Stanzas}

Down and down a spiral stair,
we groped through darkest night.
Jo-Mima, leading, screamed when he
stepped out into the light . . .
and even I, though warned by Jo,
was frightened by the sight.

Another Bo and Jo stood there,
and said, with reaching hand,
"You will not see, too many times,
beyond that level, man.
And few men ever take the chance,
of fewer, still, who can.

On Level 2, the concepts are
seen philosophically,
but this will be the only time
you look at Level 3 . . .
where 'neath idea and substance, things
exist, but spiritually.

You cannot breathe down here for long,
but as your souls, it's we,
that have been charged with making sure
you don't meet injury.
So, take a look, then speak your word . . .
it is 'Eternity'."


{Mortal Stanzas}

I guess Jo-Mima did his best
to focus and to see.
I saw some forms there, shimmering,
but they weren't clear to me.

So, we were far from satisfied
at gasping words to leave.
It's as if we had sight organs, but
we still could not perceive.

Unlike the Second Level, where
an Earthly sense will do,
Level 3 requires that we
become like spirit too.

No accurate sense of feeling, and
no accurate sense of sight,
made it hard for us to tell
anything, left or right.

Our ghostly, soulful, doubles made
an effort to convey
a notion of the nature of
the spirit world that day.

They walked us out into the room,
and did their best to teach
us both about eternity . . .
the height a soul can reach.

But the blurriness of images
allowed us little hint,
of what the where we were might be . . .
nor what it might have meant.

We crossed a floor, much cleaner than
that wormy, slimy base
we'd left on floors above, before,
descending to this place.

A simple, metal sign above
the jam was cut with lathe,
and announced our entry, there unto,
a bright new room called "Faith."