Onto the Next Life
By Lauryn Vierck, 17, Wisconsin
“I’m sorry to ask but how many?”
“All seven, I’m afraid.”
The world around him turns to the brown, red, and yellows of dirt.
A sense of dread and expectancy hangs in the air.
“I’m sorry, but it is time to go now.”
The crow of death spreads its beautiful yet terrifying wings.
The man takes a deep breath,
as he knows where he will be going.
He climbs onto his black and iridescent back.
The crow lets out a screech and they take off.
The body of the man left behind in the dirt,
ready to return to the Earth.
Look closely and you will see a small sprout,
a new life is just beginning.
With one death, another life begins.
The circle of life they call it,
being born into a new world,
growing up and growing old,
returning to the Earth from whence you came.
This poem was inspired by Leonora Carrington’s painting, “The Saints of Hampstead Heath.”
If you look at the man in the painting you will see that he is holding up seven fingers; I took this as the seven deadly sins. The first few lines are him telling the bird representing death how many of those sins he committed. I took writing this piece as an opportunity to share the message that out of any death in our world, new life will be there right behind it, sprouting through the cracks.
