The Sixth Level: The Void

by Louis Bertrand Shalako

c2011

All Rights Reserved


It is not in whether you win or lose

But in how you play the game

It’s not what you got.

It’s how you use it—and I suppose what for.

***

On the sixth level of the game, we find a great vast void

It’s a dark and quiet place, full of broken promises

And unfulfilled dreams

There are lots of shadowy figures

And no one seems to know anything

Deathly spectres

None dare look a living man in the eye

The only sound they make

Is a long, draw-out sigh

It is a place where nothing is real, yet solid enough underfoot

A place where you must never say what you are thinking

And you should never believe what you think you are saying

And everything has to be imagined before it can happen…

It is not up to us, to save their world

They should have thought of that before.


The Seventh Level

Oneness with the Game


Having achieved the fullest understanding

Of our own ignorance, and that of others

Then we may achieve true bliss

We have made it this far

And we have learned to listen well

We see beyond what is real

And to look behind that which is false

We have learned so much

We feel the truth within our hearts

And we must be grateful for this

To err is human

To forgive is divine

We are all in it together

Not for a long time, and not for a good time

But only for a short time

Let us see that we make the best of it

Upon achieving the seventh level of the game

We are truly free.


Author's Note: I have three prior fragments of the poem scattered about, so I will dig them up and stick them together. Polish the full length of it, etc.