Bardo

We all know that fable about the bullfrog in the pan
with the water temperature rising so gradually
that the submerged amphibian doesn’t realize

until it suddenly finds itself boiled into the afterlife.
The story’s bullshit, but what about that water?
What does it experience as it straddles that state line,
just before escaping into vapor?
What goes through its mind as its matter
disbands and evaporates into the ether?
How would it feel to be perpetually trapped 

at 99.99 degrees? Snagged on that cusp, 

teetering on the razor's edge of existential orgasm?
How does it compare -if we might trip down the cellar stairs 

of the thermometer- to being that same liquid 

just before it seizes into ice? 

Do you even notice that one instant you’re fluid,

the next you’re frozen solid?
Do you experience some epiphany,

is there bliss -or even pain- in transformation,

or is there just a moment of surprise, 

like that evening when you served dessert 

and found you could not look him in the eye?