Death & Dying


The Dead

The dead are always looking down on us, they say,

while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,

they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats

of heaven

as they row themselves slowly through eternity.


They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,

and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,

drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,

they think we are looking back at them,


which makes them lift their oars and fall silent

and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.


Billy Collins


The Return of the Rivers

By Richard Brautigan. I love this poem & typeset it for easy copying:

The Return of the Rivers.pdf



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