THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS
Are we late?
There’s no hurry.
I’d forgotten.
Of course.
Where are we going?
We’re already there.
I don’t understand.
Don’t worry about it.
It’s dark.
Then open your eyes.
There’s no place to stand.
Then sit.
Where is everybody?
They aren’t here yet; there’s only you and I.
When will they get here?
When it’s time.
There isn’t room.
We’ll have to make room.
Can it be done?
It can and it will.
Is there time?
Time to forget.
Forget what?
Everything.
Why?
So we can remember.
Remember what?
Everything.
Who are they?
You’ll remember when you see them.
Who are we?
We’re here.
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As I wrote the poems for the Quadragesima series, I decided I wanted them to be in chronological order, which gave me a structure to work with. I wrote "The Peaceable Kingdom" with the newly created Adam and Eve in Eden, and thought about what might have gone before them. "This Way to the Egress" came to me. I don't know who the speakers are; perhaps the poet and the reader; perhaps Mr. Interlocutor and Mr. Bones; perhaps the Demiurge talking to itself; whatever makes sense to you. I imagined it as one of two 'bookends' to begin and end the series, though I don't think I came up with a counterpart for the other end, at least not one that satisfied me. But I wrote more to fill in the space between.
