Afterthoughts

by

Radiance Angelina Petro

 

 

Ever wonder what the dead think about

when they watch the living? Let me tell you.

They think about how it is you haven’t

 

figured out that eternity isn’t a particularly

good incentive when it comes to hopes and dreams.

They think about the shifting source of light,

 

and how it pursues you to the end,

and how it causes you to be brilliant, yet

staggering, when it comes to the hazardous

 

business of loving someone. They know

miracles when they see them. They know all about

the fascinating intricacies with which you try

 

to delineate time. They remember what is was like

to be barely present, and how the forces

of need and want become life’s afterthoughts.

 

They think about how they forgot the first work

was to find themselves, and ultimately, how

the whys of this and that become just

 

another irrelevancy in a long line of irrelevancies.

They think about how they didn’t notice day-to-day

revelations in their perfectly well-hatched plans.

 

They wonder if you will ever see the sun flooding

distant hills, or the moon shepherding stars.

They wonder if you will be more careful

 

than they were when following the mere, guiding

outlines of the late-evening roads leading to where

you think you should go.