When It's My Time to Go

When it’s over, it’s over, and we don’t know
any of us, what happens then.
So I try not to miss anything.
I think, in my whole life, I have never missed
the full moon
or the slipper of it’s coming back.
Or a kiss.
Well, yes, especially a kiss.

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?...

I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life

Love, love, love says Percy.
And run fast as you can
along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust.

Then, go to sleep.
Give up your body heat, your beating heart.
Then, trust.

Reassuring Foreshadowing

What is each night’s falling into the abyss of sleep
but a reassuring foreshadowing of the awesome final falling?
I’ve been gazing on April
drifting in a skiff of trust over an ocean called sleep.
It came time to yield and without the slightest fear she yielded.
It seizes my heart to see the perfection of her innocence frail against the night.
I fear her eventual bruising,
pray her full unfolding,
vow protection to her,
bow to God in her,
see in the magnitude of her surrender, of her trust in morning’s calling,
a reassuring foreshadowing of how each of us can meet
that awesome final falling.

O No, Carroll

Young woman to man dying:
“Are you afraid of death?”
“O no Carroll, to be afraid of death would be afraid of being born.
If this life brought such miracle and wonder,
isn’t it natural to expect the same from the next?”
Wise words regardless the source,
but what soul pride to learn today from my mother
they came from my grandfather!

Earth brother Jesus, body racked, blood draining,
heart loving to the end.

Vivacious dog, sleeping child, wise grandfather, immemorial human psyche, courageous human heart
all invite me to lean my heart toward loving,
yield to the untroubled flow,
lay down fear and pick up trust
when it’s my time to cross the rainbow bridge
and enter that cottage of darkness,
when it’s my time to go.