I Never Believed in Death

I never believed in death, for I never saw it.

I saw only that this became that.
The petals fell away, and the thing became a stem,
and the floor became scattered in pink.

Containers break. Eras end.
Thing-ness only a stopping ground,
a pause at the train station, followed by moving on.

You were never yourself, and I was never I.
Everything cresting and falling,
giving way, again, to the ocean.

We need more words like arise and fewer like die.

When you know you are a just a disco party
of cells that came together for a time,
you’ll live like the blazing sphere you are,
and dance with the spheres around you.

You won’t ask of them, or tax them, or want them to be anything.

You’ll be boogieing in the sun, and look
over your shoulder, breathless, to say

Quick! It’s only for a moment that we are this.
Let’s feel the sting when we land from a raucous jump.
Let’s watch our knees glisten.
Let’s wait here, as night covers our skin.
Let’s watch our hands darken.

Let’s cry, at the realness of it, and the dreamness of it.
Let’s marvel at it.

– Tara Mohr

photo credit: Christopher Campbell