From Life by Shane McCrae

From Life

I came from life from living I arrived

Nowhere     in the midst of God     in the midst of God

God is a city      in which no one has ever lived

We live      in houses like the houses we once had

Some in their first      some in their last

I live in the house I lived in with my wife

The first year we were married     a small white

House at the edge of campus it’s as if

We never graduated     never left

Except she isn’t here     and none of our

Friends but the friends who died so long ago

They aren’t our friends anymore

I do what old friends do

And love them anyway    we eat together at the Waf-

fle House on Saturdays and wait all week to die

How many weeks now I don’t know

Except it can’t be more than three

Thousand I guess about three thousand    sixty years or so

Or how long do young people live

Seems like it’s longer every day    three thousand or

She would be here with me I have

Thought hard about it and I’m sure

But sometimes     I feel like I’ve thought about

Her life for longer than she could have lived it

And mean to ask an angel      why we can see

Everything but Earth     from Heaven

But I don’t ask     I don’t think I could stand to not

Be answered     but I don’t think I could stand the answer

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