Cynthia Arrieu-King
Common Denominators

You float up towards the ceiling. You’re a ball of light. You’re in pitch blackness of space floating. You find that you don’t feel pain because you’re without your body. Suddenly, you’re suspended in a dark expanse like outer space. Suddenly, down the hall hearing the doctor speak about you dying. And the light you go towards is blinding like a thousand suns, a million suns, the brightest things you can imagine but exponentially brighter than that. You find yourself in a terrain. You find yourself in a moonscape. You find yourself in a beautiful garden. You find yourself on an island. You find yourself with beings in a library showing you your life on a screen in a table. There’s always a life review and then you feel the pain you caused other people, one after another. This review happens even if you land outside Christian heaven in an unending subjectivity of divine energy. Maybe you see a goddess made of stars. Maybe you see fish people with incredible technology. And you’re happy about being there or others direct you to go back because your work isn’t finished. You’re only twelve and your grandmother doesn’t smile, is not happy to see you, and tells you to go back. Or you stand by burning rocks in limbo. Burning ash in hell. They do terrible things to you. No one lets you eat the amazing food laid out on the roadside tables. You realize you need a key. Singing a carol does it. Or if you’re not raised with Christianity, you are flung into a sea of love and have a life review. They explain: The earth is a school. The earth is a projection. The earth’s vibration is rising and you’ll either be shaken off or taken up with the vibration. Earth souls stay to learn the lesson they haven’t learned yet. Our human world is not operating at frequencies as high as most other worlds. Which explains a lot.

 
Found In Volume 55, No. 01
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Cynthia Arrieu-King
About the Author

Cynthia Arrieu-King is an associate professor of creative writing at Stockton University and a former Kundiman fellow. Her books include The Betweens (Noemi Press, 2021) and Futureless Languages (Radiator Press, 2018).