Heaven and Hell
Heaven + Hell are estranged sisters eyeing each other across uncrossable distances. Each gathers her allies mutters darkly about the other. Envy might glint, sometimes, in their eyes. Heaven plants her roots, sends up fronds sweet green shoots and harvests ripe. Hell skims lightly over the world undoes bindings. Heaven seals with honey and wax. Hell dissolves, molecules sigh into their component parts. Heaven keeps a tidy yard, bakes fresh bread, remembers. Hell, she walks out the gate, leaves salty footprints (no backward glance) in her wake. She forgets. (From a classroom prompt based on X. J. Kennedy's fantastic poem, "Nothing in Heaven Functions as it Ought." I had the kids brainstorm connotations and denotations of heaven and hell, and compare them to the Hawaiian concept of the afterworld, Keao...