The Value of One Life
"Were it possible, a vast number of human beings would likely relive
at least one day in their lives --
each being utterly ignorant of the consequences."
-- a Rationally Ethical poet not among the vast number
* * *
My New Year's resolution this year, like the year before,
I fear is but to pose the question most shall likely bore,
to wit -- Had I the choice, would I relive my antic life --
encompassing the vow to bow before my faultless wife,
yet two world wars, the Holocaust, the dropping of the bomb,
the morn I aced the alphabet and sang it with aplomb,
Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq,
the hour I mastered telling time to read the Doomsday Clock,
still 9/11, Sandy Hook, El Paso, Columbine,
the eve I grasped my dad and mommy loved to 69,
the European heat waves, Haiti earthquake, China drought,
Katrina -- "Mine Eternal Love" till endless fallings-out --
the Challenger, Chernobyl, plus the Boston Marathon,
the sec I knew no high school dolls with goof balls get it on,
Coronavirus, HIV and AIDS, the Asian flu,
the noon I learned to write the 1 percent an IOU,
and each night I forget I have dementia in the brain --
till full recalling every dawn my loved ones died in pain?
* * *
a dedication of Respect
for
the value of boundless Pain
continuous
a revolving helios rhyme menippean satire on
the popular, sentimental, romanticized notion of
human existence
january, 2023 -- yet countless romantics still fancying
happy new years
Copyright © James Starkey Iii | Year Posted 2023
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