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.