When I was a new seminarian
I had a favorite parish priest mentor
who told me the best way to die
is while having an orgasm.

I wasn’t sure if I could ask
why he was so exclamatory sure
of his nakedly compromising position.
I did not really know him all that well,
although he seemed to be a swell up kind of Father.

Perhaps I looked a bit nervous
because he hastened to reassure me
the reason he is enamored of orgasms,
of peak experiences,
is because they transcend our cognitive dualities
in-between polyamorous Eros
and polytheistic Agape.

Orgasms are ecstatic climatic events,
warm full-bodied memories
of mindbody interdependence,
of holistic cooperative economic enlightenment
and political empowerment within
every organ and cell,
muscle and happy little ego-subsystem
groaning out this profoundly universal Yes!
with both LeftBrain audio-visual ethos compassion
and RightBrain universally uniting
neurosensory climate of eros pleasure.

I didn’t know what to say to this bicameral-sexual therapy.
But, if this is an option for how to die,
it does sound like the only ecstatic one I have ever heard.

So I said that.
And then my mentor suggested I go home
and practice
living that same way.

Interesting,
how orgasms struggle through rhapsodic space
while dying struggles against too-fast insufficient time.