A Sunny Day

Audience of ancestors
beyond the grave
watch from celestial bleachers,

not seated in rows
but spread out like stars, scattered
among flowers, gravel and dust.

Six feet under
they have shaken hands with
Plath, Lennon, Sigmund and Eleanor

and even welcomed Ginsburg,
never once questioning her timing —
only there to help her 

remove the shackles of aliveness
which takes time:
the rules, the worries, the suffering.

When the realization occurs
that the grim reaper is not so grim,
there is uproarious laughter and relief.

Simultaneous revelation,
the shocking surprise:
all that fear, for nothing

shifts the upper atmosphere
and we get, here on earth,
a sunny day. 

Our worries release,
our fear of death vanishes
we are aware only of

 the cloudless azure sky
and the unfettered brilliance
of beautiful light.