anaesthesis

the viper strikes
& sleepy death
oozes through
indifferent plastic
tubes

night claps down
day juts up

& hours completely
disappear––

where was i?
where have all those minutes
gone?

when all time stopped,
i was praying––
a word for giving
thanks––
a word for giving
all

did the sun
stand still
or the moon
eclipse?

was i
a nobody-no-where?
or just a monitor
disconnected from
its c.p.u.?

or perhaps
my tick of particular hours
collapsed into a sympathetic
wave-form sea––

or maybe
my-i is just jammin’
in its own
dimension
because it wants to
& because it can

each photon
charts its singular energy-
eternity––
is it blind?
is it sense-less?

is “to be”
to be a “thing”?
a “living thing”?
a “conscious thinking”?

what then, for us
non-material no-things?

day & night; birth &
thereafter cannot extinguish
us

we are contingent
if-then butterflies
like rainbows arising
or a resonating echo
that’s never heard

we if-then-spirit-sprites
are as durable as
any proton

as energetic as
any quark

& certainly we become
perfectly free
the instant
we let go