What happens next

                        What Happens Next

What happens next?  The question kept me moving

into the novel—into the play—into my life.

But now I know.  There will be joy and grief.

There will be peace.  There will be war.

The old lady in the hospital gown will die.

So will the man with the cancer.  A boy,

a girl will wail a first lungful of air.

Perhaps my grandchild, perhaps not—details

I do not know.  But now I know what happens next.