Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Skeptic Enters Heaven––poem by Dorothy
The Skeptic Enters Heaven
Even when she arrived
and was filled with love
she didn't believe it.
Some kind of chemical or
magic trick, she was sure.
Something to make you
feel good, like laughing gas
in the dentist's chair,
a substance people ate or inhaled.
And then there was the landscape.
All those luminous blues and greens,
colors she was certain
they had somehow manufactured,
as if she were wearing a special pair
of tinted lenses,
easy to explain.
When they asked her what she
would like,
she wanted a book of reproductions
of famous artists.
They offered her a glimpse
of the originals,
but she refused,
obviously these were phonies.
So they left her to roam
the libraries,
books on every topic,
and she read and read and read,
oblivious to the display
of golden clouds and shimmering gardens
outside,
the celestial music wafting in from somewhere,
safe in her bastion of doubt.
Dorothy Walters
September 14, 2019
