Valley

I absolutely understand the meaning of life

I saw it one time in my grandparents' basement, in the furthest corner of the room, with light so far gone that all the blacks started to turn an army green, and the flood of tepid air scraped the back of my neck, shuffling the minutes spent like cards on a felt table

There between the walls was an enormous angel, silent, brooding, charred, and blurry, staring directly through me, guarding an invisible staircase we are all destined to ascend

The features of her face were soft and lonely, like a chipped vase whose imperfections only served to highlight the beauty of its structure, and her thoughts were palpable in the indifferent room below the house that meant only love and growth to me

She held her own orbit in that corner, the green light patterning out to thin rings of red and orange close to her surface, and tiny moons hung in the dusty air, recent satellites sent from God to drape and clothe, that turned to chalky black soot once they dissipated and fell onto her

The soil of heaven is populated with hearts and minds planted in the hopes of resurrection, the latent promise of an eternal wave that flows incessantly in concentric circles, and I remember that spring day that quietly slipped into the perpetually scorching month of August as a sign and omen of the true nature of what came before and what comes after even before I saw the angel

Sitting in my grandfather's beaten green leather armchair that had long since been banished to the basement, the haze of a bright sparkling day beaming in through the two partial windows near the ceiling of the room, I saw the giant black rose hovering in the corner, silently buzzing, if that makes sense, confidently describing the world around it as if by some type of holy sonar, like a wellspring of love ensuring the view of glory that everyone eventually sees, once they decide to take the long view

It was like she was set in the middle of the Mojave Desert, past ideas of good or evil, rooted in a darkened, heavy bright light on the other side of the world, beset on all sides by a delayed vision of erratic lives lived and times spent haphazardly; you could see the entirety of the planet floating around her and through her at the same time

I hesitated to stand, to breathe a word, or to do anything that would break the spell of the moment

The air became bright tonic and the desert sand turned to dandelions in a great green field
Some were tipped with white fuzz, but most glowing golden and verdant

The angel turned and came towards me, bellowing