The Shape of Death

3/2/03 I saw no way- The heavens were stitched I felt the columns close The earth reversed her hemispheres I touched the Universe 378: Emily Dickenson The Shape of Death Because I could see through all the eyes of men, Pandora's sin,the sum of every joy and sorrow crowded in I felt the paucity of greed. The simple mood of life enriched by guileless generosity I asked, "Are good and evil mixed?" I saw no way - the heavens were stitched. And stitched perhaps until the hour of death Because I could see through all the eyes of men, I knew of life's inevitable end that closure, that omega rose that brings eternal sweet repose. That stealth of life in increments the broken bond of flesh to death Within its marble tenements I felt the columns close The columns closed, my mother passed, Because I could see through all the eyes of men, my solace weighed in beauty that we gathered, in all my childhood hours In sunsets, birdsong, clouds, and dew in measured memory of her face I turned myself away from our lost years The earth reveresed her hemispheres Reversed - that algebraic leap, Because I could see through all the eyes of men All wisdom spilled to unity of life, Death un-veiled - benign as the blank page before birth returning that Divine immortal leaf like the shape of space that waves traverse, when split, between a particle And I can say with nothing to coerce Perhaps....I touched the Universe.