AFTER LIFE

                    How did it seem when you arose from death
                    To find yourself again when you had breath—
                    If breath it is that spirits animate
                    Once Fate has led them through the mortal gate?

                    I ask rhetorically, for if you hear
                    And you reply, I doubt that I shall know:
                    I’m not the kind to whom spirits appear,
                    No mind where supernatural currents flow,

                    But still I’m curious what afterlife
                    May lie ahead for humans when they die
                    And if with pleasure or with grief it’s rife,
                    And whether we shall have another try.

                         Of whom I’m asking this, I do not know—
                         Someone above or someone still below?

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