Miles’ Journey

I, Miles Everest Dale,
am on a journey.
and let me make it clear
that although technically,
well, let’s just say for now, “dead,”
that I also walked among you in human form
for 28 earth year voyages around the sun.
Brother Miles I am called now,
He who wrote poems
others got to read
only at my ending
the words that tiled
my secret notebook
where the other dimensions
of who I was
met the earthly context
in which I existed.
When I lay in that coffin
with my eyes closed
and that slight smile on my lips
and looked so peaceful,
beautiful actually,
even serene,
me, Miles Dale, serene,
in the box
with all of those people crying
and having panic attacks
and packing the house,
my crazy earth father
taking my picture in the ef’ing coffin
And me lookin’ good, y’all
Can I get an amen?
Just once?
You do not know how hard it was
to be Miles Everest Dale.
First there was that so-called “minor” glitch
in the supply of oxygen
from the mother ship to the fetus baby
while he rode thru those way too small
vaginal passageways
the walls of the holy temple
the gateway to breathe,
earth consciousness,
and individual identity
I’ll tell you one thing,
speaking as Miles Dale,
mine was a very hard role to be assigned,
some would call it
a tough hand to be dealt,
to be speech impaired,
and a little slower in the academic track
where, like everywhere,
I was different,
only more so,
odd,
vulnerable
crazy
funny
annoying
not fitting in
as it is imagined a person should
in order to be considered “normal”
in human terms.
And now, lo and behold,
I am about to enter the Guinness Book of World Records
in the lead
in the category
of most-human-ashes-carried-and-left-in-most-sacred-places.
You might want to read that last sentence one more time.
A little ash in Thailand,
a little in a half dozen holy rivers
running to a half a dozen holy seas,
in a camp for the rehabilitation of elephants
(and I know about rehab facilities),
a little in Laos,
in Angkor,
in Mandalay,
in Southern India,
in the holy caves of Allora and Ajanta,
and at the headwaters of the Holy Ganges
after which there will be so much more about my journey to tell,
but for now you just have to wait here
at the side of the road
for my uncle in his pick up truck
to take you along the trail
and tell you more of my tale.