(after Leonid Andreyev)

I know it's impossible to believe,
but I have returned to life.

I ceased to exist for three days.
I was nothing for three days.

But today, I am something.
At first, I was so weak, after being on my back for three days.

But now that I am standing – now that I am able to stand –
I can throw off this dark cloak

of the flesh, which has always followed the narrative:
Life, then Death, then Infinite Nothingness, ...

Look at me.  Have I changed?
Look at me. Do I look differently?

And so, what do you want to ask me? Is it:
What was it like? What was it like to be nothing?

No one can know such profound nothingness;
I wasn't there, after all: I was dead.

And now, I want to be recognized again,
as I was, before my death.

I want to live, go on, continue,
not scarred, not horribly transformed,

but whole.  Here is a second birth,
a second life, a second chance,

until my next death.