For M

Gustav Klimt, Apple Tree

40 years ago, a miscalculation,
a split second, ended your beautiful life.
They came to tell me.
I felt your spirit, like a shadowy angel, hovering over me,
comforting me. Then you were gone.
For weeks I secretly cradled you, holding you in my arms.
I imagined laying you down to sleep among apple trees,
sun on your skin, soft grass under your soft body
which no pain could ever reach again.
How I ached to give your life back to you.
You were gentle and kind and full of fun,
and I would have traded places with you
oh, in a heartbeat.

Now I imagine you wholly joyful, wholly free,
somewhere in the vast love that fills everything.
I smile, hearing your laughter,
remembering your dancing eyes,
and the way the dark hair fell across your forehead.

May gladness from the deep glad heart of God
flow through you.
May you have life and life and life and life,
world without end. Amen.

That’s funny said the bird

FUNNY
by Anna Kamienska

What’s it like to be a human 
the bird asked

I myself don't know
it’s being held prisoner by your skin 
while reaching infinity 
being a captive of your scrap of time 
while touching eternity 
being hopelessly uncertain 
and helplessly hopeful
being a needle of frost 
and a handful of heat 
breathing in the air 
and choking wordlessly 
it’s being on fire 
with a nest made of ashes 
eating bread 
while filling up on hunger
it’s dying without love 
it’s loving through death

That's funny said the bird
and flew effortlessly up into the air