after Hope II by Gustav Klimt
I am still thinking of the pregnant woman
on the fifth floor in room five hundred four
in a gold and jewel-toned Byzantine gown
with her eyes closed and her head bowed
down toward her swollen belly. Has she
glimpsed the gray skull attached to her womb?
Is this why her eyes are closed? Did she
somehow guess at what I now know—
that to say yes to a birth is to also say yes
to the death of that child—how the end
is in every one of us from the beginning.
It is right the soon-to-be mother
is nearly naked. This is what birth
and death do to us—no matter how
rich our clothes, we are utterly exposed—
not a damn thing to protect us
from our impermanence. I have fallen
in love with her, this mother to be—
in love with the curl of her fingers,
in love with the flex of her wrist,
in love with her flat and ornate robe,
in love with her delicate face,
and in love with her ripening shape—
this is how the human story goes.
Death hides in all our robes.
It’s the only way to live.
What an epiphany – grief grants clearer vision? I’ve seen this painting before (years ago) but with less vivid interpretation. You put it precisely: not a damn thing to protect us from our impermanence.
Oh friend–I am ever amazed at what happens when I circle back to something at a new chapter of life and see what I couldn’t have seen before. Love to you
Death hides in all our robes.
We bring our deaths everywhere we go. —Susan J Tweit
Again, saying, Yes, to the world as it is.
Yes to the world as it is. Oh mortality, I am getting to know it so much more intimately
While my best friend lost her son in a senseless 50 car pileup,the words speak true to her too. Thank.
Oh my heart opens to her and to all who love her son.
The only way to live – yes! how the end is in every one of us from the beginning – to love rather than fear this. xoxo
oh friend, to love rather than fear this …