Karma /Death Poem by Allison Riches

Karma

Karma is my brilliant best friend;
She’s patient and will always defend;
The innocent or guilty;
Never judge by ability;
I see her in phases, now and then.


Death

Death is an appointment
Rarely is the time rearranged.
With Death there’s no disappointment
One’s inevitable meeting can’t be changed.
When illness builds like a storm,
the heat and lack of air is sudden in its grip,
The hopes, dreams and prayers, then final breaths of belief,
from our bodies, slowly slip;
A serene understanding that shrouds the transient individual’s mind,
Offers relief and acceptance of what will happen,
yet there really isn’t enough time
To reassure all of their loved one’s,
sometimes many generations,
that they’re forced to leave behind.
If they could explain and offer any form of justification
To those loved ones that are left,
yet physically lack the mental ability to accept an explanation;
We must understand that they craved the freedom from their bodies diseased
And with a sight known only to them they wanted to reassure their babies,
Yet when ‘peaceful’ in their world are unable to appease
The continual flow of tears of mourning,
followed with endless questions of ‘Why? ’
They’re just as frustrated,
understand they can’t shout out reasons, their voices that are silent,
But they do see us cry;
We must trust, as they do hear and always understand
Our feelings of guilt, anger, betrayal, loss, and then our demand
For some kind of reason- ‘There are none! ’ they say,
but we just cannot hear
Because we’re not supposed to.
We must learn to trust, and when we accept,
We will still have to wait here
On earth as we learn to finally understand;
only then can we accept the blame that results from our actions,
And it’s these that form the basis of our learning.
We’re convinced, no, we know they’re not blind;
Many, many, many tears will be shed whilst accepting our loss,
the space that they leave or is it self pity?
yet we must applaud, and be grateful for the kind
Of understanding in this life that’s merely of flesh,
our innocent superficiality;
If only we could see the world as they do,
in fact the way that they exist now,
It’s only then we’ll be ready, though at One’s discretion,
to enter the world of serenity.
Is this death or bereavement?
Can understanding be a mortal state
or is it reward, that of life eternal?

Allison Riches ‘Karma’ and Death December 28th,2007.