Dying Planet
the solemn grey skies
of the first afternoon snows
up here in the mountains
by the lake
no buses roar
no blasting boom-box
no crack vials on my lawn
but no magic purple room
alive with music
no friends with whom to make it
no favorite haunts to visit
no chance
to wallow
in sad losses
and visual reminders
but they're just as vivid
in my mind
and neither time
nor distance
can weaken my loss
bears in the wild
and babes in the woods
the rain of pain
strikes unsheltered souls
who's only crime
was to be too human
too innocently
ignorant of death
but death will find us
teach us
master us
it reigns eternal
snows will fall
and forests will burn
and mighty steel towers
rust to mounds of dust
the sun will darken
the oceans disappear
the earth will vaporize
but death will still lurk
elsewhere
other worlds to tame
other life-forms
to snuff out
on some world,
somewhere,
it just started
snowing for
the very first time
on some
other world
many billions
of years of life
are suddenly
extinguished
when the last
living creature
is touched
by death
death
that awaits me
death
that awaits you
it's a violent universe
where it is only
change that doesn't change
and death is
always the master
its fingers are long
and aged
and it smiles
in certain
anticipation
of its eventual-
its assured,
final
victory
Copyright © Tom Bell | Year Posted 2007
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