Don't Live Forever

Die young.
Die old.
Die middle-aged.
You WILL die.
No amount of exercise
Or diet will save you.
Accept the inevitable.
Car crash,
Heart disease,
Cancer,
Shooting,
Stabbing,
The how doesn't matter.
Facts do not need consent.
Now.
NOW NOW NOW
Now is what matters
As yesterdays
Trail behind you
Like a tail growing
Without end.
Withered and spent,
Old and gray,
Young and vivacious
With a bold future ahead,
Neither matters.
One fact is certain.
Consciousness will cease,
Heart will no longer beat,
Lungs will exhale
A final tired breath.
Make your choices
And abide by them.
These words
Were written by
A living man
Who will one day
Cease to be,
Who may have been
Dead and buried
For many, many years.
It is coming
For me,
For you.
Do not fear.
Do you remember the world
before your birth?
Close your eyes tonight
and trust in uncertainty.

Impermanence

Bones can break.
Stone can erode.
Memories can be forgotten.

They say in billions of years
the Sun will swallow the Earth
and in the millions of years

that follow
even the Sun will cease
to be.

I will hold on to the grains of
sand in my shoe
until I am one as well.

Hold Your Mother's Hand

A specter of war looms in the news
but I am not thinking about
those who are fighting,
those who have died,
those who will die.

I am thinking about a young boy
with a tumor in his brain.

I am thinking about a friend
undergoing chemotherapy.

I am also thinking about a friend with
malignant tumors in one of her lungs.

The young boy may not live to see five.

The chemo has taken her hair and breasts.

Her care is taking her to another coast.

Our frailty is not news.
Impermanence is fact.

My attention is split.
My mind wanders between thoughts
and hopes, stubs it's toes on the couch.

The war will happen.
If not between those countries
then between two others.
Those I know may live,
they may not.
I hope they do.
My voice feels very small.
Remember being a child
lost in the store
wondering where
your mother was?