Dying, I lose all sense of time,
being one with the universe
until my eyes open in suffering.
The pain recedes, leaving me young again,
but not as young as I become
when as a child I play,
finding innocence by degrees
on my journey to the womb.
Before that there is love
gaining on me all the time.
Geoffrey Heptonstall
Geoffrey Heptonstall is the author of a novel, Heaven’s Invention [revised paperback edition Black Wolf, 2017] and a collection of poetry, The Rites of Paradise [Cyberwit 2020]. See also mention of his work in Kate McLoughlin’s British Literature in Transition vol. 4 Cambridge University Press 2019. He lives in Cambridge.