Detachment Process

There was nothing I could do anymore
I knew as I fell to the floor
That resistance was useless
My body was now merely a nuisance
But there’s a difference between knowing and believing
My soul resisted leaving
I grappled for something to latch onto
Inside the lifeless corpse that used to
Contain me

But the fight was lost, see
As the umbilical cord that connected baby to mother,
Body to soul, was severed
I could struggle no more
For another moment, nor
One last breath

So I sat and I watched
As the forest animals dismembered
Me and ate and fed their family members
I listened to the gruesome sounds
Of flesh torn from bone by hounds

I tried to leave but I could not
Like some invisible force chained me to the rock
To watch as my body decayed
Nested by flies that left their babes
To feast and to grow
Into maggots – which my mother hated so –
Gross and slimy
Until they became adults, and lived out another two weeks
At best
Coming to terms with their own imminent deaths

My crimson blood
Seeped into the earth then dried up good
And the rest of my flesh,
Infested with amoeba catalysts,
Rotted and decayed
To fertilize the river bed

Only then when nothing was left but a skeleton
Could I leave in freedom
Having forgotten all that I
Was, I had served my time
Waiting patiently
To become earth-bound once again