"I've decided to quit believing in death…"

people will deny

anything these days

so, I have decided to join

the practice of dismissing things

that we’ve been told are true

I have decided to quit believing in death

~ it just doesn't exist for me anymore

I have a new theory

I’m working on~

when our dear ones

depart their bodies and

turn back into air and light

they don't disappear

behind a brick wall

that separates us

~there are no bricks

there is no wall

~there are no barriers

there is only a grand

window between us

and those whom we

have stitched ourselves

to with the most divine

of angel hair threads

we can see our beloveds in

the heart shape clouds

and they can see us

as we kiss their picture

goodnight ever so softly

death doesn't exist

it's a debunked

flat-earth theology

where we are told that

the people we love spill off the

edge of the world and

fall away from us into

the endless unknown

that's not my experience

what I have seen is that when

a dear one leaves me I don't

feel the space grow between us

I feel us grow closer together

~ our entanglement becomes tighter

they travel with me to the

store to buy garlic

they brush my hair out of my eyes while

I cry in my car in an empty parking lot

they join me on my daily

walk around a lake

they sit on the board of my conscious

and offer me advice

they float above me while

I write a poem

they laugh when I trip over the same

chair damn every day

they catch my prayers and

courier them to God

they write love notes to me with steam

on my bathroom mirror

they play the right songs on the radio

at just the right time

they have made a cottage

in my heart

they have turned my eyes

into miracle telescopes

they converted my lungs

into a retreat center

they dance in the eyes

of my children

my loved ones haven't gone anywhere

and neither have yours

they are just on the other side of the window

waiting for you to see them

waving at you

in their sundresses made out of stars

and their tuxedos stitched by time

and someday I will be on the

other side of the glass

acting so obnoxious that you

won't be able to ignore me

and someday I will be writing

you love notes on the petals

of sunflowers for you to find

just when you need to read them

and someday I will help paint a

sunset in the exact color of the

way I felt whenever I was wrapped

up tightly in your arms

I'm not scientist but

my research tells me that

death doesn't exist

however, love does

and it has no end

and neither do we

~ John Roedel

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo by Michele Rudenko shared with permission