Chosen Ones
by Robert Pegel
If I die before I wake.
Some are given no choice.
And end up on a new plane
confused how they got there.
The Filipinos have a name
for the young dying in their sleep:
Bangungot.
In Thailand it’s called Lai Tai.
No matter where you live
it’s called an
unimaginable tragedy.
But maybe we die on
exactly the right day.
Not a day before.
Or a day later.
We don’t get to choose.
We are merely soul vessels
roaming this planet
in a body we try on.
For a little while.
Flowing with the
natural order of life.
Nothing can be pushed away.
What cannot be explained
has to be accepted.
Some must meet
their fate fully,
willingly,
and wide awake
with intention.
Their soul plan
we will never
understand.
Carried away while
sleeping.
Unable to resist.
A chosen select group
just getting started.
Missed forever,
Denied all possibilities
of what could have been.
In this life.
Angels granted early entry
into paradise.
In the next life.
---
Robert Pegel is a husband and father whose only child died in 2016. Calvin was just 16 and died in his sleep of unknown causes. Robert writes poetry to process his pain and grief and to seek transformation. Robert graduated from Columbia University where he majored in English. He has been published in The Madrigal, The Remington Review, The Galway Review, Trouvaille Review, Bluepepper, Goat’s Milk, As Above So Below, Ariel Chart, The Pangolin Review, A New Ulster, Unique Poetry and others. He has work forthcoming in Resurrection Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly and Mason Street. Robert lives in Andover, NJ with his wife, Zulma and their Min Pin dog, Chewy.