The doctors let us in to see her.
The room was bare,
Only a mattress on the floor.
They’d bound her hands.
She looked up at the ceiling
As if she could see the sky.
Something about her made us reverent.
We waited for her to speak.
“I see a great moon,
So bright it makes the night
Brighter than day,
Brighter even than the sun…
“I see a vast cloud
Covering the sky,
Gray, brown, black,
All the colors of the earth…
“I see death,
So many dead
That you cannot begin
To see even one death.”
We asked,
“Where do you see this?
Where are you? When?”
She answered,
“I am everywhere and nowhere.
It is right now.
It is yesterday.
It is tomorrow.”
When we left her, night had fallen.
We walked without speaking,
Distracted by our own thoughts.
All at once came the flash.