Instructions for the Afterlife by J.E.A. Wallace

I

You’ll wake up atop the smallest of five towers

Remember that your feet move even

If your head's an anchor

You must get up and walk

Down stone steps that wind

Like an old Medusa enemy's curl

Until you’re outside under a migraine sky

So shield your eyes

And look east to the farthest, largest tower

That’s where your bruised bones are headed

II

Because a spaceship is waiting at its summit

So big your eyes shine for its architect

There’ll be a door in its side shaped exactly like you

So go through and wait for the thunk that seals and

The jolt that will knock you off your feet

Before long you’ll be floating with stars but don’t

Be afraid of the coming explosions

Or the following silence that’s an elegy for engines

Be ready to crawl through what is at least dark

To escape what I can assure you is a monster

III

You won't be able to stop the ship from crashing

So hold on tight to yourself

You will emerge from the broken machine

Out into a place where the only movement

Is the smoldering of stone freed to fly

Don't brush the rubble from you

You need camouflage to survive

What will be an echoing walk through that city

You know the monster came down with you too

Better head for where the sun turns red

IV

The streets become sand where the city ends

& inevitable desert begins

The last thing imprisoned in form

Is a half felled lamppost

Wait there for a delicate colour of wings

Follow them over the dunes

Have no fear for that sound of teeth behind you

The moon will keep watch of your soul

As you walk through the final stage of ruins

Until the black above bleeds into blue

V

You’ll reach a house in front of ocean

Where your guide the bright billowing bird

Lives in an always open cage

In the room of a murdered girl

They will feed you in the boarding house

But you must solve the crime

Down on your hands and knees

Combing the carpet for clues

Eliminating impossible thoughts & rising

To point a finger at the monster

VI

Take your leave and board the boat at the dock

Join its scurvy crew but remember

To tie your limbs into tatters of rigging

Because the water will start pounding soon

As the sea and sky become one storm

But you mustn’t close your eyes

Even when the wind turns into ghosts

Whose ravaged familiar faces'

Screams sound just like yours

Because you’re the only watch for land

VII

You must not ever remember

How you reached solid ground's bliss

Just open your eyes, get up and be bound

For that cathedral's skeleton

Where for the first but not the last time

You face your companion the monster

It lies in wait on the rain ravaged altar

So swing the sword of the empty knight

Guarding the busted holy doors

For a stay of execution

VIII

Keep hold of what remains of the sword

You will need it for a baton

Walk into the woods outside

After a while you will find yourself

In the middle of a waiting orchestra

Stop and breathe and tap three times

Then paint them a picture with fluttering hands

Of the blood and the dreams in your head

Be a dog in the sea of their tune

But steal an instrument as you scarper

IX

Because beyond the woods is a roadblock

Guarded by soldiers with grins

That surely belong to demons

Who have served supper to Death

Befriend the driver of one of the patient cars

Give the runaway soul a warm clarinet

And they’ll hide you underneath blankets

Sewn together by grandmother wolves

And through questions asked by black eyed guns

Be silent and be still

X

You awake alone in Chernobyl countryside

That has been reclaimed by the animals

Take your final steps to those towers

Where a critical countdown is on

And the weakened but dangerous monster waits

To fight in a maze of metal

From which you will emerge alive

Into a control room of red

That is flowing from a button marked END

Close your eyes and push