Death and Beyond

The boatswain's call pipes departure
As first watch follows the evening bell.
Pity not this night's brief parting
Since all will soon embark into the shadows as well.

Gingerly forsaking their accustomed homeland,
Each timid wayfarer plies the brink of time and space.
Hardly the end, Death is but the beginning
Of a common trek to a familiar place.

Note the keen eye of the Helmsman
Who has delved these somber depths ofttimes before,
And as Life's drab fogbank softly scatters
He aptly scans the faint line of a far distant shore.

Obscure at first, now we also see it...
A crystal strand, shining pearly white,
And beyond that shimmering surf, a verdant country rises
To welcome us home beneath dawn's silvery light.

- Edwin L. Woolsey