Contributor: Steve Ridpath

- -
It’s been said that the angels only visit virtuous youth;
those who wedded wisdom and those who love truth
would be taken from us early and not grow gray and old;
They say the saints are needed by Heaven’s gates of gold.

But pondering the common hopeful assurance of this creed;
there may be something predominant to this assumed need.
The departure can be sudden - or cruel, twisted and protracted -
though loss to those left, there may be purpose in the enacted.

A seed must be buried to later manifest its mighty branches;
The thornbird’s brief appearance does its final song enhance.
the precipitous, vaporizing death - that ruthless thief who steals
and leaves us in ashes - strips us of vanity and bids us to heal.


- - -
I am CPA by trade and an emerging poet who had a muse inside of him for many years, but didn't recognize it. Have published a book entitled "A Walk Through Life: Poems of Virtue"