How does Billy Collins use imagery in The Afterlife?

In the third stanza, Collins describes two popular views of the experience people have immediately following death. The first view comes from those who have literally died and have come back to life, via cardiopulmonary resuscitation or natural means. Such people frequently describe seeing a blinding white light and passing through a tunnel or tunnel-like shape. The second view is more explicitly Judeo-Christian in its imagery and involves a God who judges people by the life they have led, assigning them a place in heaven, which they reach via "a golden ladder," or hell, which they reach via "a coal chute."