Wyatt Underwood

Hell or Heaven

Infernum seu Caelum in Latin

that is the real question, isn't it, Hamlet?

how do we live to avoid the one

and maybe win the other when we die?

we agnostics and atheists may be one up

on that question, going nowhere, so to speak.

but even we are somewhat interested

how live so people speak well of you

after you die, and don't revile you?

ah, well, as well as I can tell

we don't much care when we are gone

if you go first and I'm mistaken

please return and let me know

Love so often is

Hell or Heaven

love so often is, isn't it?

I mean, you're shopping for new slacks

or shoes or, hell, a bicycle

a breeze wafts a new perfume

a short skirt snuggles a bottom

hair tosses on a shoulder

you swear you weren't seeking any of that

but in a trice, you're buying her ice cream

taking her dining and dancing

and don't know how you lived before that scent

but you're happy whenever she is

and dismayed to see her watch some other guy

you're oh so careful to be reasonable

while you throw your tantrum

leave her your car and walk home alone

love!  what sane man would have it?

oh, you would, man, if only she'd come back!

Heaven or Hell

love so often is

Hell or Heaven

When I was youngish and still wrestled

with whether God, Heaven, or Hell,

it seemed to matter a great deal,

more than life or death perhaps

every Sunday in hardwood pews

listening to my daddy preach.

But now, having heard so many preach,

most of whom seem never to have wrestled

or even paid attention from the pews

I seldom worry about Hell

or Heaven or if God.  Perhaps

it no longer matters a great deal

Maybe I've seen too many deal

and noticed that cards do not preach.

Deacons and preachers do, perhaps,

but it's we the listeners who wrestle

with whether we're really doomed to Hell

or just to sitting in these pews.

More truthfully, I avoid pews

these days, more concerned with the real deals

politicians make for worldly Hells

they don't even bother to preach

about so we could wrestle

with whether we wanted them perhaps.

Aye!  There's the word!  It's that perhaps!

Perhaps God, Heaven, or Hell.  These pews

are real though.  Nothing to wrestle

with about that.  No lucky deal.

Today if I were going to preach,

it would be that, not Heaven nor Hell.

But you are spared that Sunday Hell.

I do not preach, I claim.  Perhaps

I must make true I do not preach.

Must make as real as are these pews

my vow not preach.  Is that a deal?

Then with my tongue I must now wrestle.

No talk of Hell,  No hours in pews.

No real and perhaps, no more big deal.

Just do not preach and do not wrestle.