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 © Norberto Franco Cisneros | Year Posted 2017
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