Ghost Mortem

(A Quantum-Mechanical Afterlife Adventure)

By Christopher Kent

There once was a ghost, his soul free at last
Who found out he could coast through his probable past.
Back when he was living, he thought that events
Came one after the other—it seemed to make sense.
He’d thought of his life as a tale with one ending
A road that he’d walked, full of potholes and bending,
And he’d always believed you were stuck with your past—
Once you did something, the die had been cast.
So you can imagine the look on his face
When he died and discovered this wasn’t the case!

Instead, he was caught up in total immersion—
The life he remembered was only one version!
From this new perspective he clearly could see
That his life was no road; it was more like a tree.
Every fork in the road had gone multiple ways
Though he’d only been conscious of one string of days.
Each choice that he’d made caused new branches to grow
In the tree of his life. Now he found he could go
Down the pathways that he might have followed instead;
He was laughing, and crying, and scratching his head.

He was very surprised to go back and discover
How his life had turned out if he’d stayed with one lover
He’d chosen to leave, despite feeling affection;
It sent his whole life in a different direction.
And he saw how things changed when he chose to pursue
An entirely different career as he grew.
He saw just what would have transpired if he’d never
Done things he regretted; or had been much more clever.
And some great mistakes that he’d found quite depressing
He now could see clearly had really been blessings.
There were so many versions of his life to explore,
And each one he followed led him on to still more.
And even more startling, those alternate endings
Were all just as real as what he’d been remembering!

After a while, as it really sunk in
What life truly involves, he could barely begin
To find words to express the amazement he felt
He’d done more than he knew with the cards he’d been dealt.
He’d been learning and growing and loving and giving
Far beyond what he’d realized when he was living.
‘Twas a huge tree of life that his choices created—
He was awestruck and grateful and truly elated.
He felt like a child, he was positively larval;
His life had been a multidimensional marvel!
“This is wonderful!” he said. “It’s totally Zen!”
Then he smiled. “Now I can’t wait to try it again!”