Why do you fear Death,
Or Time or Ageing?
Your soul wants to be free.
Seeks to shatter the fetters
Of this fragile human body.
Before long, soil you shall be
Feeding this famished earth.
Or slumbering in an unlikely creek
Bestowing hope and solace
To parched and weary wanderers.
You were surely intended
To unlearn all of yourself
Become one with the whole.
Hearken! For the day quickly dawns
To return you to the universe.
What is it most ask,
Do, think,
Or don’t?
It’s doing what you love
Not loving what you do,
Living to work
Not working to live,
Free will,
Your choice.
I’ve been in a race even my shadow
Couldn’t catch me until late
So many I’ve loved and admired
Turned to dust
The wonder and waste of a still life
When breathing is just not enough
Is anybody listening to the cracking sound
Bone on bone a chronic lament
How do you weigh and measure gratitude
On a tipping scale of pleasure and pain
And yet poetry plays a serenade
Love came and kissed my face
There’s more to say
Something wonderful
Delivered late
What to do with the fence
around your place
the hard rain
that won’t end
the body
bearing down
on its poison
is there a broken bone
in your speech?
Are you only
your worst moment?
And what about the next life,
would you even want it?
Can I just tell you
none of us know
what we’re doing here
none of us
are getting it
right
some of us are good dancers
and others are still learning
how to walk,
be here–
love–
not die.
Time between the mouse click and the response
waiting for a program to start or a printer to run
staring at the final moments of a microwave job
swaying over the toaster glowing but not done.
Hours spent daily wasting a lifetime away
betrayed by the machines of convenience
promising fruit from the tree of knowledge
while pointing/clicking at the pop-up ads
derived from one’s previous web searches.
With privacy now re-imagined
and the program still frozen
printer’s out of cyan and magenta
toast is burnt coffee came out weak
contemplate what we’re evolving to
I’d rather hear the sounds of crickets.