Heaven and Hell

4/1/13

Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell are stops on the same road.  Sometimes when you think you are headed for Heaven you find you wind up in the other place instead.

"There were wildflowers along the road to hell.
 The wind blew and the flowers
danced in the ditches alone or in pairs
in that cheerful way that flowers have
You had to be there to see them
and the guard towers coming into view.

I wasn't.  Still, one hot summer afternoon
as I lay resting, their bright colors came to me,
and that dusty road and that long ditch
Where the wind played with them
carrying their scent past the barbed wire
Or so I thought, too scared to imagine the rest."

Charles Simic, Wildflowers from Master of Disguises
(2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)