Parallel Time

Parallel Time

Charissa Sylvia

We live parallel lives in unparalleled time —
those of us who walk the curved earth,
and those who don’t know night.
who are wrapped in white rays of eternality,
I wonder how it feels to wear light? 
I wonder how immortality works exactly —
how old does a soul have to be 
to forget what it’s like to bleed? 

The days here unfold in chronos years 
seconds standing tall, 
rank and file hours moving forward, ordered. 
I open the morning curtains 
to see a world shot through with pain, 
people I love burn sage on graves 
to try and make up for missed days, 
to bring back souls that should be at the kitchen table
sprinkling Tajin on, well, everything. 

We weren’t made for short years, 
for worst fears. 
For light that’s only moonstone, slow to glow — 
having no luminescence of its own.

Kairos time, deep time, 
moves un-neatly outside human, artificial confines,
sometimes I see it shimmer near, 
out of the corner of my eye 
are moments of second sight 
that make me look twice, remind me,
gloriously, everything is not as it seems. 

I beg the Ancient of Days 
every sunrise for double vision —
sight that blurs the parallel lines of time 
between here and Heaven.

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Charissa Sylvia
Poet

Charissa is a poet in all the corners of the day that time allows. She is the creator & host of Twenty Word Tuesday, a short form writing challenge on social media, and has also been published on Calla Press. She lives with her husband, cats and kids in Pennsylvania.

Photography by Dim Gunger