Unconventional Witness

　　Every soul will taste death& And to Us you will be returned

　　If it were just one of us,

　　only the Americans or the Peruvians,

　　only the ancients already buried

　　and things of legend and dust.

　　Only the adults, the elderly, addled,

　　dying. Or only the children,

　　too young for written words

　　and shared knowledge, history.

　　Only the Christians, or only the Buddhists. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

　　Only those who live beneath the equator,

　　or only the June birthdays. Only the uneducated,

　　unused to reading or strings of math.

　　Or only the doctors, lawyers, surgeons.

　　Only those with black skin, or only white.

　　Only brown. Only the women. Only the men.

　　Only the families with last names starting with

　　W or I or T, maybe N or E. Only starting with S.

　　Only God, and no one on Earth at all.

　　Surely this hero`s journey, spiritual odyssey,

　　is selective in its champions.

　　We cannot all face death and return

　　from the brink& surely.

　　What an unconventional witness it would be,

　　people from all countries, colors, religions, races,

　　cultures, times, places, all sharing

　　in the possibility of returning from

　　the other side of living.