On Reincarnation

Who will I be next time around
When back from heavens I descend?
By sticky nets of karma bound,
My old transgressions doomed to mend?

Will I be back a man, a woman,
A pauper or a millionaire,
Or will I even be a human?
I do not know, nor do I care.

Will I be healthy, tall and cheerful
Or short and sick, and ugly, too?
Will I be brave, or always fearful?
I haven't got the slightest clue.

But life on Earth has been a whoopie
In which I played the crucial part.
I almost went from sane to loopy,
And now would want a fresh, new start.

I'll see you in a distant country;
In some new language we will speak.
We'll love and hate, and sing in chantry,
And happiness again we'll seek.

And, maybe, in a rare while,
We'll have a fleeting deja-vu,
And with a secret, furtive smile,
Recall the lives that we once knew.