Paths

If life is a garden,
what lies behind,
what goes beyond?
Close the gates behind you - your journey ends here.

The scents of freedom have you mesmerized,
the feel of spirit invites you on.
Life is a ride.
Now the tour's over, you'e reached paradise.

What's this, a veil perhaps?
What's that, smooth as velvet.
Life is too short for questions.
Proceed, yet be cautious - or you'd be burning with regrets.

Together and apart
all washed up ashore.
Life is a circulation.
Rise like the Phoenix, and reborn.

If life was a maze,
what would you decide,
what would you presume?
You're standing on a crossroad–you have to choose your way.

Significant meanings:
- Velvet implies temptation.
- Phoenix refers to rising from the ashes, and since everything is washed up ashore again, it basically means returning back to earth.

There are different beliefs about what happens afterlife.
Resurrection, reincarnation, or simply that it's over when life ends.

Each of the verses refers to different things.
As for the crossroad, besides from the normal four directions, although of course north could be heaven and south hell, it also refers to the four paths mentioned above.

It's not a good piece, but the idea is just too interesting to resist.