An Angel Listens
By John Herlihy

The angel listens,
But does not speak.
The angel waits
From week to week.
He is my true guardian;
My shining star.
His silence is meaningful,
Speaking volumes from afar.
His presence is always there;
His whisper wards off despair.
The weight on my shoulder,
Nothing more than a feather.
Steady and full of surprise,
As unpredictable as the weather.

Don’t tell me he doesn’t exist;
Tell me that I can persist,
With the impulse to recall,
When I am adrift at sea,
He is ever faithful, my landfall.
When I lay down to sleep,
He is by my side.
When I awake to the world,
His presence I abide.
When I lay down to die,
He will be there by my side.
Not dead. Not now.
To live on somehow.
My guardian will take my soul by the hand,
To another dimension in another land,
When he will take leave and disappear,
Another soul on earth to protect and rear.