Do we drift into death as we fall into sleep? <br />After death will we rise from the dark as a soul? <br />Our heart, is it weighed, are we judged by a god? <br />If we pass every test, are we placed with the blessed? <br /> <br />Or will we start from sleep to a slap <br />Delivered by a sturdy midwife, <br />Surprised into breath to begin once more <br />A life much like the one before? <br /> <br />Perhaps we may wake with a shock to find <br />We’ve been born again as the whimpering calf <br />Of a cream-coloured Charolais cow, <br />Predestined both for the abbattoir. <br /> <br />Poetic justice would be served <br />Should we come back as a battery hen <br />Or a piglet intensively reared for pork <br />In a bright-lit industrial unit. <br /> <br />Better perhaps to sleep for ever, <br />Unconscious as we were throughout <br />Those long geological eras before <br />The earth bore witness to our birth. <br /> <br />That way at least we will go back <br />In the melting pot of the universe <br />To be re-used in heaven-sent <br />Sustainable development.<br /><br />Pete Crowther<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/life-after-death-2/
