Messages from the Dead (poem)

There were so many that died
even the worst qualified achieved it
they took themselves to that ground
in numerous ways on a time-limited budget
doing back flips and twists in air
with a staged planetary clump of mass
where all things drawn together
took the living as well
to heaven
or hell

And the living saw the darkness
and knew it wasn’t good
with its story of nothingness, chill
thrilling edges merging subducted or crushed
the books were better
with messages from the dead
billions and trillions of lines
neatly composed paragraphs full of sentences
describing the substance of being
experiences and ideas of those gone before

Plainly the messages could have been valuable
to those that read and applied the best
content and knowledge to construct Utopia
upon the floating temporal island
so those that lived could be happier
unless considering perhaps, eternity waiting
like a tsunami on the horizon
growing larger in the shallows of aging
to roll into the bay with foggy, mystic cover
and those that saved their lives
lost them at last
and all things did pass.