From the Other Side

I’m here

From the other side

Next to you as you sleep, Love

Nexttoyou

And yet

We’re separated by one word

It lives in you, how is that right?

The word “live” seems wrong

Diseases don’t live

They take

And yet, our lives can never truly be touched, can they?

We have that in common, praise God!

We are death survivors, you and I

This mortal work cannot touch us

Jesus bore your sickness, Love

He became a curse for you

But

That doesn’t mean

This doesn’t still feel like a curse or–

You can’t

Still

Die

And there’s that word again

It sits between us like so much hard, cold impenetrable glass

Or maybe plastic

It feels manmade, fake in a way

Like the Agent Orange that fathered it

Faulty DNA birthed from faulty natures

Fruit from a Fall

Just as much theirs as ours

Perhaps you accept that justice more than I

I remember once (and many times thereafter)

You said you must accept the evil allowed by God just as you accept the good

From the Bible–Job, in fact–how could I argue?

And yet I cry out against it

From the other side

God, please forgive me for that

Jesus knows sometimes it just hits me like this

As I lie here, inches yet literally worlds away from you, Love

And yet–

Nothing can separate us forever

Though I lie here writing to you

From the other side

I am yours

And you are mine

Whether on this side

Or the other