Poem: Terra Corpus

The ending is quiet
While beginnings are fireworks
Celebrations of novelty
Endings are the heavy weight of the land
Waiting beneath the starry bursts in the sky
For all things that offend gravity
Must settle back in their places

Who knows the last love?
When everyone guarantees you'll never forget your first?
Who waits expectantly with trembling frame
For the final act of absolution?
The last sainted kiss on the forehead departing
As life nears perfection
At the dusky edges of horizon.

The ending is and was and shall be
The waiter for finality
The manservant for conclusion
The docile one who goes gently into that good night
And welcomes with tired arms the dying of the light.

The penultimate sigh welcomes the last
The final love carries you over the brink.
Is it more important to remember
The starry bursts of youth, in sky ablaze?
Or to feel the weary weight of the land
Below you, cradling you, absolving you
Before entombing you in the final ending
The final love
The final embrace


Copyright 2005, Elijah Hubbard