Paradise

In the end we will all kneel at God's feet,

or maybe at the feet of Mother Nature or some

unheeding and hooded fate,

and we will wish for silence so that

we might better hear our future.

We will stare into the blackness of uncertainty,

stripped of our carapace of lies

and faithless before the presence

of limitless faith.

Then we'll remember the days

when we curled up in our boxes

and beds

and succumbed to the stories

of a lurid paradise.

We'll look back at the days spent

chasing the perfect life

and wonder if things would be better

if we saved memories of small things

and collections of the real

in the corners and closets

of our mind

to be released later, fireflies,

into the darkening skies

of our existence.