To Those Waiting to be Born

Leave your preconceptions at the door. They will not avail you.

Drop all allegiances and affiliations before entering the field.

Your fate is no longer in your hands.

The authorities will be along shortly to assign you a number.

Let go your original appearance. Your face has already been changed by the trip.

Pointless poetry will not protect you. Forget your state of grace.

Innocence is an illusion. Wisdom is worthless. Knowledge is a burden.

This life must suffice. There’ll be no other, as far as you know.

Certainty has a price, and doubt is its own reward.

Don’t reject this world. You won’t get another.

There’s much joy to be found amidst the pain.

Do not doubt that they are a pair, two sides of the same coin.

Toss one out and you’ll have no currency for the other.

Don’t sit too long in the sun or you’ll get burned.

Don’t stay too long in the shade or you’ll wither.

The way forward lies suspended between them, floating on an invisible path.

Can we just get on with it, then?

I finally have something to lose.