Letters from Heaven

By Bryant Burroughs

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I wish there were letters from heaven,
the return address of my mother and dad,
not for an insider’s scoop on happenings there
nor answers to the Big Questions,
but to feel them again
in their script, their sentences:
my mother’s encouragement,
my father’s counsel. 

I know the angels, though many,
are too busy with God’s matters
to deliver mundane messages
like some owl at Hogwarts.
But if they had an assignment here, 
could they not drop postcards
and letters from the clouds?  

A voice inside me
and yet not me,
a very familiar voice,
says, “You are their letters.
They wrote their hearts onto yours.”
It’s not enough, I think.
But then I look and listen
with all my heart.

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Bryant Burroughs is a poet and short story creator whose work has appeared in online literary sites such as Agape Review, Clayjar Review, Pure in Heart Stories and Faith and Hope & Fiction. His first collection of poetry is published as Where Do My Words Go? Bryant lives with his wife Ruth and three cats in Upstate South Carolina.

Bryant's other work on Foreshadow:
The Widow Whose Son Lived (Fiction, July 2022)
The Youngest Day (Poetry, November 2022)
The Widow's Psalm (Poetry, February 2023)
The Leper and the Healer (Fiction, May 2023)
Pearls of Ignatius (Poetry, August 2023)
Song of the Star (Poetry, December 2023)
A Long Walk Toward God (Poetry, January 2024)
All the Dead Heard His Voice (Poetry, March 2024)