After
After the suffering,
there is another time,
a time that decides our eternity,
where we decide
to continue our own pain,
or swing like a child in spring,
laughing in joy
at the beauty of a May afternoon.
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The picture was taken of a yard down the road from me in West Pawlet, VT. You can click on it for a larger version.
Tom
Quarry House 
Hi Tom,
Always best to laugh and swing!
Very rich. I like the sharp contrast of pain against the child who swings…..
I get a sense of Dickinson’s..
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes-” as if we are bound to honor the suffering…However, your poem insists we have a choice…as indeed we do!