AN INVITATION

by Shellah Garrett

When I was a Christian
I invited Death
For what was life
But a tightrope
Strung between rapture and despair
Leading, perhaps, to Heaven?

When I was a Buddhist
I invited Death
For what was life
But a rung
On a ladder of lives
Climbing at last to Nirvana?

When I became a Scientologist
I disarmed Death
I discovered that I was Life
I understood
Both Heaven and Nirvana
And the ladder is a Bridge I can cross.