Omm Sety Rides the Night Train to Giza
by Charles Jensen
Omm Sety, born Dorothy Eady (1904-1981), is considered the most compelling argument
for reincarnation, having recovered the memory of a past life in ancient Egypt.
Two trains pass each other in darkness,
the lights of one zip past the windows of the other:
a swarming glow of fireflies.
And then darkness fills the window with its inkblots
until I see my own face
murky, hesitant in the spill of night.
I wonder if the souls of these two trains
recognize each other as they cut through the air
never touching, but aware
another train exists. Such heavy questions.
The car’s hypnotic rock makes a cradle of my seat;
my mind is tired.
All my years I lived feeling shorn in two. Pieces missing.
When this train finds its station, men will chop it up,
an earthworm spliced into segments.
The cars will pull apart so easily those men won’t think
to listen for their cries. Much of life’s pain is released this silently.
And the train doesn’t die. It lives, ridiculously, in ruin.