THE WAYS TO SEE AND BE AN ANGEL

VII

“I have an angel”, says the person dying,
searching around him for a companion
to guide him through his private abysses.
“I have an angel”, he says when he dies,
“visible at last, the one who guarded over me in life.”
“I have an angel”, I will say when I lift up
my being into its being,
as though we had walked
together from forever.
“He has his angel”, another angel will say,
watching at the window
how we are lost to sight
in the yellow afternoon