Too damn many people I know have died this year. In the span of a week I've already attended two funerals for friends of family, and at the end of the month my friend Jeannie is going to bury her mother-in-law.

Not really knowing what to say about these deaths, but feeling the need to say something, I wrote this. It just kind of came to me this afternoon while I was putting dishes away. I don't even know if it's any good, but it made me feel better after having written it.

CHRYSALIS

To all things there is a season

Even trials which, for no reason,

Seem to strike us down without remorse;

And when our time has run its course

We must remember, through our fears

That we are allocated only years.

We are born into this world

Larval, incomplete, and furled

With no knowledge of what awaits us soon;

And then we crawl into cocoons

Of wood and earth, and thence to die

While all around us, mourners ask God why.

In our rebirth, they cannot see

Our souls borne into eternity

As we emerge from our chrysalis.

And so, my love, I tell you this:

As from eternal grace hope springs

A butterfly begins to spread its wings.