The Universe Is Immense

How many people with foreboding palpitations
have I seen slip from middle age and slide into old age?
They slither into their last refuge, the dirt hole,
and ignorantly nestle into the forever unknown life stream

The ones who grow old breath by breath, carry a last wish,
that life be sustained one minute more to last long enough to bypass death
in a quick and painless termination of life's struggles 
The dead, even the almost dead, at this point know hope is futile

Hope is only for the living, the years brandishing hope 
vanished in our last hours of life that dissipated quickly 
decaying and filling our last, precious dying seconds 
with a revelation that recoiling from death is folly

We are finite beings with an expiration date
Death always triumphant shows no mercy 
and leaves no room for hope or idle prayers 
it forges forward and onward like a blade mowing grass

At my age, death is my constant companion, I do not shun it
I welcome the old rattler without hesitation or fear
Life and death are just what they are, a before and after selfie,
what happens after that is anybody's guess.

Nothing more, nothing less, and in between the short and long lived years 
my hopes were stuffed in plastic grocery shopping bags 
I toted them fearlessly but with lofty aspirations of the future
thinking I had more time, as we all do

So I lived my life as a happy-go-lucky tourist in this beautiful world
seeing interesting places but learning people had minimal common sense
were avaricious to a fault, lacked compassion 
and were ready to believe the worst of themselves

Questioning has been my guide to understanding this convoluted world,
but what I learned is that it's a war-torn Disneyland in chaos 
controlled by wealthy men with a malicious agenda but as a curious visitor 
I see man's folly and am sorry to see the suffering we created

The call to for humans to think critically is imperative for survival
knowing my departure is imminent I await anxiously 
my next perplexing assignment in God's philosophical essence eager to explore the complete universe to satisfy this thorn that grinds at me 

Repeating and repeating incessantly wearing out my mind 
questioning that somewhere in this vast universe must exist 
a more compassionate manner of living where astute 
benevolent logic prevails and all life is sacred

Time brought age and wisdom to me, but also laughter and confusion  
gearing me up for the next bewildering wonder to be revealed 
as the universe is immense and perplexing 
but it is also full of humor and deceit

Lead on, Grim Reaper, 
I will follow your lead with bated breath
worried what other idiocies you have in store for me
in that mysterious, unknown theater called eternity.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2017

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