Afterlife

Who can say for sure what happens when we die?

Is it all just an empty blackness
Or perpetual blazing white light
Is it pain
Is it peace
A forever stillness
Or a place of no feeling

Who can say?

Has anyone fully gone through the gate and then returned to tell us?
Fully dead and gone?
I believe there have been those who’ve peered through
Started the process and then been pulled back
Before the gate is shut and locked behind them
Trapping them in death forevermore

Who can say?

History is full of theories, stories, fables,
Trying to explain what comes after
Told to comfort, to give courage,
To justify the present or give hope for a better future
Sometimes an empty promise
To extract an action
Like martyrdom, self-sacrifice,
Or an acceptance of those who rule us.

In the Afterlife, all is possible
That’s what we’re told
As we struggle upstream in this life of pain
Swimming slowly toward the goal
We fight the current
In forever increasing exhaustion
Until the end of the rapids is in sight
As we enter the peaceful pool
And then quit flailing
As we await our inevitable ends.

Who can say?

I can’t know for certain
All I can do is have faith
That the end will be beautiful
And a relief from the struggle
That we as humans place upon ourselves
With our self-imposed burdens
For reasons irrational
Slaves to our greed and fears.