Falling Back Into Life

Happy late in life,
they're not afraid to let the quiet in
or mix living with dying.

There's hushed talk of what they'll find
on the other side, who will be there
to lift them over the threshold.

That it's best to give everything away now,
her demitasse cups, his silver pocket watch.
How little it all comes to.

Patiently arranging pansies in clay pots,
beneath clouds shaped like blossoms
bursting into the unknown,

they fall back into life again, edge
the garden path with simple stones.
Knowing, little else matters except

this familiar ground of home,
and the end that they see
so clearly.

(c)Ann Falcone Shalaski                             2005

published in The Poet's Domain, Vol 25

Live Wire Press, Charlottesville, VA