The Dead - Billy Collins

[Larry Robinson]

The  Dead

The dead are always looking down on us, they  say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking  down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly  through eternity.

They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and  when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
drugged perhaps by the hum of a  warm afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them,

which makes  them lift their oars and fall silent
and wait, like parents, for us to close  our eyes.

	- Billy  Collins