A Parallel Universe

I AM NOT HERE.

I inhabit the same world yet I am unseen.

Sometimes eyes directed toward me see straight through me.

A wraith, spectre or figment?

I know not which nor whether.

Under one great sky do we all dwell.

The same sun warms my pate as it does yours.

We are doused by identical downpours, buffeted by the same gales, chilled by the same frosty mornings and we swelter in the same searing heat, but you wouldn't know it.

We are so alike yet so utterly different.

I no longer hustle and bustle like those of you around me.

Near static in a constantly moving world, I have nowhere to rush to or from.

Looking on I can see the pointless earnestness of the ebbing and flowing masses.

Rushing here, racing there, yet never really knowing where or why.

Waging a constant battle against time, they leave much of their world unobserved. Untouched. 

Fooling themselves into believing theirs is a life well lived, when the opposite is the naked, uncomfortable truth.

If only they knew how few of their worries and woes were truly worthy of their care.

I could tell them, but my nonexistence means my unneeded advice would go unheeded, even though I can talk with much authority on the matters of life and love and loss.

I too once strode along a similar path and clambered up the ladder.

Unburdened by the need to waste precious moments on unimportant things like idle conversation, the appreciation of children's laughter or the beauty of autumn leaves eddying in the breeze.

I was the provider, striving to create a better life for those I believed looked up to me, before I became invisible.

Confusing bigger with better, my success enabled me to amass wealth and comforts for those I held dear.

I was the rock upon which they could rely, the shoulder on which to cry.

Falsely considering myself happy then, like those who pass by me now.

Then, in a blink, a flash of steel, a glistening cloud of glass, it all changed.

Forever.

Each of us is only ever an instant away from dwelling in this parallel universe.

A world inhabited by apparitions like me.

To be ignored, stepped over or around.

For the very few who do glimpse me, their eyes betray them. 

Recognition is followed by revulsion, which is soon replaced with discomfort, and then almost always, pity.

Yet they know not what bought me here nor how closely they are to treading the same path.

Neither do you.

Be careful where you step.

Just one misstep, a trip, a stumble, an unwanted moment in time could have you join me.

I am not here.

For all the invisible people. There but for the grace of God go I. And you.