Parallel Lives Poem by Brian Taylor

Sanor is walking by the river,
she is sixty eight.
Her face is beaming,
it is Uposatha Day.
She has been giving alms
at the Temple of the Jewel.

So many monks and hundreds of novices!

Her husband was a boatman.
He left the island of Phi Phi
just before the Tsunami
killed most of the boatmen
and destroyed all their boats.

Now he believes in karma,
making merit
and supporting the monks.

A man had cancer in the brain.
The doctor was about to operate
but the man died and as it was now late,
the body was left at the hospital in that state.
Ten hours later, the man came back again!
He said he had been taken to Yama
who told him it wasn't his time to be dead
and showed him Heaven and Hell instead.
Those in Heaven had done good deeds.
Those in Hell had done none.
Yama said since he had planted good seeds,
his cancer had completely gone.
He would not need an operation.
When the doctors looked inside,
they found it was the cancer that had died.

He said he had not really understood
cause and effect before,
but now he has seen the working of the Law, *
he spends his whole time doing good.

The monk said
everything happened
just like that.

*Law of Karma.