Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AFTER DEATH by WALT MASON

First Line: I DO NOT KNOW JUST WHAT MAY HAP, WHEN I GO
Last Line: IS JUST THAT SIMPLE LITTLE CREED, TO CLIMB THE GOLDEN STAIRS.
Subject(s): DEATH; FUTURE LIFE; DEAD, THE; RETRIBUTION; ETERNITY; AFTER LIFE;

I DO not know just what may hap, when I go tumbling off the map, into the outer

void; I hope to draw a pair of wings, and crown and robe, and kindred things,
and harp of celluloid. But little do I walk the floor, or lose a chance to sleep

and snore, by worrying my head about the things that may befall when I step off

this whirling ball, and line up with the dead. I think I've all a man should
need, in this, the simple little creed, that's pasted in my lid: "With all your

fellow-men be square; be kind and just to all, nor care a cent what others did."

If one is square and just and kind, I don't believe he'll be behind, when they
distribute crowns; he'll be a credit to this globe, and he will swap for snowy
robe, his workworn handmedowns. Religion's tangled, teased and vext, with dogma

and conflicting text, by sages splitting hairs; and all that fellows really need

is just that simple little creed, to climb the golden stairs.



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