Will we really

again be in the presence
of those who crossed over
before us, the ones who used
hospital beds and breathing apparatuses
as their launching pads?
Will they be once more
radiant in body and lucid in mind, but
even more so than they were in this world?
Will they stun us with their beauty
and the joyous wholeness of their being?
And will there be others there,
known only in family geneologies
and crumbling history texts,
whose ends were perhaps less merciful,
but who are now to be our friends and familiars?
Will we tearfully embrace those we loved
and thought lost forever, and bathe in the
knowledge of beckoning eternity and a life,
finally,
without sorrow?
Or will there be only
eternal darkness
and the dreamless sleep of
annihilation?
If the one awaits me, its reality
will be as overwhelming as the
laughter of children on the first warm day
of spring.
If the second is real...