Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Afterlife Airlines. I’m your pilot, Captain Meta Physics. Please fasten your sleep belts as we are about to leave the body. Please direct your attention to your stewardess while she demonstrates safety procedures.
In the event of a drastic reduction in karma, a mask will fall down from above you. Place it on and breathe deeply of pure love. Should those passengers who are clinically dead find themselves returned by a surgeon’s skill, the life raft under your seat will inflate with a new sense of purpose.
After take off the stewardesses will serve milk and honey. For your entertainment, the movie is anything with Shirley Maclaine in it or there are seven channels of chi on the chakra-phones being dispensed soon. For those contemplating joining the Tantric Mile High club, please be considerate of your fellow passengers.
We’re making good time because the breath of God is always behind us. Below us to the right is the Ocean of Ego and to our left some passengers may glimpse the chain of islands: Faith, Hope and Charity.
We’ve been advised that it’s a little busy on The Other Side so we’ve been placed in a holding pattern on the astral plane. Passengers are reminded to retrieve all emotional baggage for security reasons and please help Customs by declaring all religious preferences.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re cleared for landing now. On behalf of the crew, I hope you enjoyed your transdimensional flight with Afterlife Airlines and we hope to see you aboard again soon. Please fasten your sleep belts, we’re coming in for reincarnation.
Copyright Andrew M. Bell. The poet would like to acknowledge The Press (Christchurch) who published an edited version of this poem.