Poem: "Afterlove"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem was inspired and sponsored by mdlbear.  It also draws on motifs -- some of them rather hidden -- from various religions implying how it is that one transitions from life to what comes next and the means of navigating in that space.

Afterlove

Say that there's another world
somewhere beyond this one,
another life that lies after death, if only
for those who hold such things as true.

It isn't one soul's belief
that makes a bridge
from here to there.
It isn't our own faith
that lights the way through
the valley of the shadow.
It isn't any grace within
that gives us wings
and teaches us to fly.

Say that somewhere there's an angel
with rosepetal wings and amethyst eyes
who already knows the bridge and the light and
every soaring path through the perilous open air.

It's love that built the bridge
between earth and heaven,
love that hung light in the shadowed sky
steady as the North Star beyond life's horizon,
love that reminds each soul
as it reaches the brink:

you already know how to fly.