for Gabe

Gabe passed into

Became

The light

Last night.

At the age of seven

it began

He fought

and laughed

like the wind

free and easy

and fierce

watching it all

with an innocent awareness

that took my breath

away

One day

he asked me

to teach him

to meditate

He taught me

instead

One of his last wishes

he said

was to jump

from an airplane

into the empty sky

No once could say No

Not even the bureaucrats

at the Federal Aviation Administration

Strapped chest to chest

to his partner, he stepped into space

The coolest part, he told me

from his hospital bed

was the free fall

For fifteen hundred feet

He fell

he flew

he spread his arms

wide

like the wings

of the angel he was

and is

Now I step out

of the plane

joined to him

into the space

of groundlessness

We fall

we fly

through the clear

blue sky

No up

No down

No in

No out

No fear

And this is the coolest

part—

no doubt.

∞

From the Spring 1999 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 15, No. 2)

Text © Marcia Fields 1998-2020

Art © Glen Rogers. The Oracle Trilogy I. 1996. Oil on aluminum. 45″ x 32″. Used by permission.

Read Rick Fields’ article, “Gabe and the Medicine Buddha”