Moments Before the Afterlife

by DANA COMBATE

She carried a bouquet of daffodils under her arm
She invited you to stay
And you laid with her, at peace,
Under the shade of a million leaves

You sat next to her on the tainted white bed
Her skin thin like white paper sheets
She asked you, her voice faltering and frail
“Why did you always have to hide from the end?”

But it was such an inevitable thing.

And you thought as you put your hands together
One hand over the other
Hoping that she could hear you speak
As you knelt before a stone altar.

You sat with her under the tree one last time
And brought a bouquet of daffodils with you
You would see her face once again.
You hoped an angel opened a place for her in heaven.

Dana Combate is a senior in the Visual Arts Department at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She previously worked as an illustrator for the book Miracle or Coincidence? and has been published in several Celebrating Art books over the years. She has twice been awarded at the national level of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Competition.