Lovely Curse

I am at home with the end of things,

The last page, the lamp extinguished,

The burp after a meal

The Amen.

 

Sealed in shroud, tale told

I go the mile to the end of the road

Happy to have been here at all

Happy to have found some light.

 

The certainty that one day it all contracts

And then we begin again

The end surrounded by creation

Speaks to me as the rare snow covers the ground

They said was too warm to receive it

And all around we've been here before

Knowing we've never been here at all

And that we will be here again.

 

No Heaven can replace this feeling

That the sky shines as it always never has

And that the earth shakes but settles on new land

And if we wait, we will see the shimmering heat of a new day

In an old memory of love at first sight

 

And it is so beautiful, this lovely curse

This boneyard dance where skeletons mingle with Chrysanthemums

And eternal flames scorch cold marble

Even as the mourners get back in their cars

And wind their way back to the road

 

Forever inhabits impermanence as sand becomes glass in fire

And is eternally changed but breakable

As is the heart.

Reviews

[cest la vie]

You are something else..
This poem has it all; love, hope, grief, uncertainty..
so many wonderful lines I wil just say it is superb..

[bob, small b. aka invs]

this is really wonderful. the beginning, with its list of endings. the middle with its apparent contradictions. the images of snow and sky and earth. the language and choice of words. the images.. skeletons and chrysanthemums- fire and marble- glass and sand. you fit so much into these lines. i totally enjoyed this piece.