The Stream (Coming and Going)

When she was four, 

my daughter told me 

that before she was born, 

she was a stream. 

“I have been a stream 

longer than you,” 

she said.

I believe it. 

Both the stream part 

and the age thing. 

She is wiser than me, but 

I can’t let her know it. 

Not yet, anyway.

*

She’s not the only one. 

Young children often

mention past lives.

It’s common at that age.

There are books about it.

It makes sense to me. 

Quantum mechanics, etc… 

The butterfly effect and such. 

Hold the door open for someone 

or tell them that you like their belt. 

See how it shifts the tenor of their day. 

Of course we are connected. 

*

I started to get confused about God

around age 13, I think. 

It’s that way for a lot of kids. 

Hormones. Freedom.

But then we’re left with questions, 

like, “What happens when… ?”

Maybe the answer is The Stream.

 

We came from it, 

we return to it. 

Some of us get reunited, 

some of us do not.

*

She’s talked about it 

several times since,

The Stream.

To her, it’s no big deal. 

“The Stream” may as well be 

“the mailbox.” So mundane. 

I wonder which one I’ll return to, 

and with who. 

An invisible cohort.

We are nothing and 

everything at once, together. 

Or maybe, you know,

she was just four, 

and spouting random nonsense.

It’s common at that age.

There are books about it.


Related: @KeyTryer on AI-generated “poolrooms”

Images below:

1) AI-generated poolroom

2) AI-generated poolroom

3) The Roman Pool, Hearst Castle; San Simeon, California

4) Las Termas de San Joaquin hotel pool; Ramos Arizpe, Mexico

5) The Basilica Cistern; Istanbul, Turkey

6) A water processing facility; Germany

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