Knott

I never went out-of-body


til I partied with my law school roommates


and crashed on top of my bed curled up and drunk as a bat.

In the middle of the night I woke


Suspended above that bed


and floated down the hallway


bumping lightly on the ceiling,


being a living but invisible cloud.


This was no dream. I went bump against the wall


like a rubber elephant in a swimming pool,


that is also a cage

At the top of the brown kitchen door I blew up


with fear in great yellow lightning bolts


lashing against my dirigible of air:


I did some quick throbs against the ceiling

And my blood sucked out in panic


like low tide in the Bay of Fundy


And I deeply feared I would never ever


get back into my beloved body –


So I shouted to my essence, “Stop this experience!”

And in an instant I was back over my own body


under me and still in bed, curled up like a coat I had just put down


and I snapped back into my flesh


and was again secure –


Such is the fear of permanent nowhere

When I hear (infrequently) of astral projection,


I smile to myself.
The earth is my mother and I’m not going anywhere


There’s that doorway where everybody


leaves the house and goes into the back yard after dark


the color of the that grass I’ll find out


Meanwhile, I’ll stay in bed.

********