The World Upside Down

I saw the world upside down.

Not in a dream I was,

Though it was as a dream,

Under a clear night sky full of darkness

I floated through a seeming nothingness,

As a void is nothing, space depleted of all,

Leaving nothing, if that is possible.

I saw the world upside down,

Not as a child standing on its head

With feet swaying back and forth

To keep balance from falling back

To the earth from whence it came.

Not as an actor in a play pretending

The words he speaks are his own.

Not as a father with wisdom he

Feigns in hope that son will heed.

Not as the home that provides

A shield against the lies inside.

Not as a beggar lying in the street

Looking up, begging that life would end.

Not as the desperate woman, pregnant

With a precious life within,

Not in the way of lovers that do not

Know that true love is more than this

Lustful embrace sealed with a kiss.

Not as the murderer knows, not as his

Heart seethes with the heat of rage

Beyond his control, beyond his knowing.

Not as the one who plays the fool

Never dreaming that he would be called

To deliver an account of his life.

No. Not in these ways at all did I see

The world upside down, but

I did see. I saw the world upside down;

Good was good, truth was true,

Right was not wrong and birds and angels

Sang the beauty of God in His majesty,

Of His holiness above,

But I was upside down,
I was upside down, and my world.

Like the clear dark night sky

When the moon alone illumines

New fallen snow, bright, white, with

Light coming from below, with

Wonder filling the mind as the world

Turns upside down.

Jim Hime ©2012