"I have observed heaven, and indeed, it is breathtaking."
Original Poetry entry.
An Observation of Heaven
I have observed heaven
And indeed,
It is breathtaking.
The air tastes like light
The streets sing with the melodies
Of laughing children.
Mothers sing with no strain
No one knows of hunger
No one knows of pain
Heaven is perfection.
Yet
They say there are snakes.
I ask where,
they all smile
they all laugh
they all tuck their children in tighter.
I go looking anyway.
I find him
A small thing
Shriveled
chained to nothing
He hides in the woods
where even heaven’s light–
forgets itself
The snake was nothing but
a small boy
Too thin for his own bones
too quiet for his age
His eyes were red
with something deeper than pain
He did not move
not even when he could
I brought him water
He trembled
I tell him one day
that he can leave whenever he pleases
that he has thinned too much
for his chains to hold him.
He looked at me
like I struck him
“You cannot take me out of heaven.”
I told him
You are not in it
He calls me a liar
he cries about the love heaven
bestows upon him
the way she holds his face
a love like nothing else.
He says that
this hunger–
this shaking–
This misery–
he continues to endure
is love.
I remember I said things as well
Audacious and startled
I call him what they call him
Sin.
He cried
like something already gone
And if I ask him to tell me
What love is…
He only describes this
this carnage
this taking
this murder.
I have observed heaven
It is breathtaking
And it will take
And take
Until there is nothing left
to love it back.
