Lyrics of What Happens after or For My Father

After you died

I worried about you.
Where were you?
Were you all right?

Before you died

I told you the spirit goes on after death.
You said–Baloney!
I feared the worst,
believing we get what we imagine the afterlife to be.
A big slice of Baloney was all you would get!

Two months after you left

A butterfly on my windowsill
in the New York winter with snow on the ground.
In my apartment it lived for 12 days.
After that, no more worries.
No grief group necessary.
You sent me that butterfly to let me know you were all right.

And when I talked to you later

I asked you about that butterfly.
Was that you?
And–
How did you do that?
That’s what we do–you said.

They say we get to decide.
We choose our life before we come in,
Our race, our sex, what to learn next time around–
While sitting at a table on plastic kiddie chairs
Across from a little old white-haired counselor-geezer.
On the table, milk & cookies for shiksas and matzoh ball soup for Jews.

The truth is…

We bite off more than we can chew.

So do you wanna come back?
Or go on and on spiraling into the light?

© 2023 Sam Greene for Lyrics, Dan Carlson for Song. All rights reserved.
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