HEAVEN SENT

I was raised Catholic,

went to parochial school 

and was an altar boy,

so I spent much of my youth

contemplating heaven.

Only yesterday, more than fifty 

decades after my church

going days, did heaven

become truly real to me.

It bowed before me

with its branches 

of porcelain blossoms.

It appeared like an angel

annunciating its annunciations

through rivers of petals.

It greeted me in all its

grandeur and grace

in a Pennsylvania park.

It unfurled its firmament

as a dogwood tree.