here in the twilight

painted photographs of another lifetime,
in blue and green and yellow,
of a world where up is left and down
is “I don’t know.” somewhere
where you wouldn’t be afraid.
somewhere in the twilight.
imagine yourself with everyone
you ever loved, all at once, and all
of your essences blending together in some
kind of impossible existential orgy. everyone you ever
lost, all back where you can find them again.
as the sun is setting, imagine
what it looked like when you were born,
imagine what the sun looked like when it first
rose on the world, or what it will look like
when it sets tomorrow. imagine an endless procession
of sunrises and sunsets, stretching out from the dawn
of time to one day in the future, perhaps sooner perhaps
later, blurring together and then slowing down and spreading
apart.
          now imagine that other world, with its
blues and its greens and its yellows.
imagine it, because it won’t imagine
                                                       itself.
here we are in the twilight, and here is
the sunshine, and here is the rain, and
sometimes it’s hard to tell if the photo
is life or if life is just another photo,
but what you can do is
you can start with the sunrise and then
move on from there.