David Baker: "Heaven"

                                 All afternoon the sprinkler ticks and sprays,
                                 ticks and sprays in lazy rounds, trailing
                                 a feather of mist. When I turn it off,
                                 the cicadas keep up their own dry rain,
                                 passing on high from limb to limb.
                                 I don’t know what has shocked me more,
                                 that you are gone, that I am still here,
                                 that there is music after the end.

"Heaven" by David Baker. Published online by The Atlantic, June 19, 2013. © David Baker.

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer (originally color).