Tearing the Curtain
By Matt Schur
There’s a moment after the final breath
a pause pregnant with eternity—
still waiting for the next breath to come
still expecting the lungs to expand and fill once more
just as they always have.
It’s one moment, made up of millions.
Of course some are the memorable milestone moments
but also
the long-forgotten
small stuff of everyday life
the countless fleeting seconds
that are born
and pass away
and are no less precious—
no less holy.
It is a mystery, the eternal instant
between the final breath
and the realization that it is finished
but
it is in that mysterious moment of moments
that the temple curtain is forever torn in two.
Matt Schur is the author of Imperfectly Perfect (2023) and Cross Sections (2021) and has had poetry published in Valiant Scribe Literary Journal, Unlikely Stories, and Cathexis Northwest Press. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he serves as a hospice chaplain and where he and his wife have raised their two kids. Matt also preaches at an ELCA Lutheran church near Plymouth, Nebraska.
There’s a moment after the final breath
a pause pregnant with eternity—
still waiting for the next breath to come
still expecting the lungs to expand and fill once more
just as they always have.
It’s one moment, made up of millions.
Of course some are the memorable milestone moments
but also
the long-forgotten
small stuff of everyday life
the countless fleeting seconds
that are born
and pass away
and are no less precious—
no less holy.
It is a mystery, the eternal instant
between the final breath
and the realization that it is finished
but
it is in that mysterious moment of moments
that the temple curtain is forever torn in two.
Matt Schur is the author of Imperfectly Perfect (2023) and Cross Sections (2021) and has had poetry published in Valiant Scribe Literary Journal, Unlikely Stories, and Cathexis Northwest Press. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he serves as a hospice chaplain and where he and his wife have raised their two kids. Matt also preaches at an ELCA Lutheran church near Plymouth, Nebraska.
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