Set To Stun

I don’t know what you could have seen in the mirror that morning.

 But you were an artist inspired as few could ever be.

It was a divine hand that fashioned every detail

That I would later study as if it would be on a final exam.

Your eyes, your lips, your hair…

How I envy the hand that could put all this together

Into a painting that would make any man stop his world.

And there in the midst of my usual business

This vision appeared as a sun beam making me close my eyes,

And every time I’ve closed them since

I still see you as you were that day.

I can never answer when I’m asked if I believe in Heaven.

But we are given moments that can’t be described any other way.

For whatever it means, you gave me moments that day.

Just another ordinary day where we go about our business

Using our polite manners, we are so friendly.

But I am pretending I have not just been slain by a Goddess.

I can’t explain why, but there is some dreaming part of me

That wonders if you knew what you were doing all along.

I do know what I’m doing. I’ve learned my job well.

You may not notice as I so easily slip back and forth

Between that mystical world where I kneel before you in worship

And the mundane buildings where I perform my errands

Sometimes even for your convenience.

Did I hide it well enough?

Or did you know that I looked at you

And what I saw entered me as a dying man’s last breath

Which to hold is to be in Heaven?

John H. Bidwell