Azrael

What does it mean, when the Sand gets stuck? (Gets stuck in the Hourglass) What does it mean about time? What does it mean about space? Are we given a Respite? (I meant, ‘was I?’) Does this mean that all callow cruelty has been redeemed? Resourcefulness in God has won me over? Right Use of every tibbet (tidbit) that was unspoken Is to come? … I do not know, I do not know, I do not know… And yet, I climb, as if my Life depends each step, on climbing (And somehow, I feel sure, that I will fall!) And yet, I crazy-climb, as if my pictured Life is useless without climbing (Will I, someday, eventually, reach a wall?) For TIME to STOP, man, that’s a gift worth having! It means, you haven’t left me, though you died, It means, a breath is open for my salving, Before another breath comes, and the Tide Comes, bruising All my sand-castles, and halves of dreams, and hopes And Azrael* has got me on the ropes… But, he’s my friend… He’ll only come to me, when my date’s Due And though I run from him, still at the End, He’ll gently come and take me on to You. ____________ 2/18/2019 ____________ *Azrael – in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of the same name, the Angel of Death