Bucket List

Did you do it?

Did you travel over the ocean

to backpack across Europe

and visit ancient landmarks

that you could never find

on this side?

Did you finish the seven wonders

carved by time and humankind

Northern lights dancing skyward

and pyramids vying

just as high?

Did you buy yourself a home

just a tiny fixer upper

did you mend it with your hands

and paint inside in any way

your imagination

drove you?

Did you get yourself a job

where each morning you woke up

and you felt glad to get ready

because you had a love

for where you’d go?

Did you adopt a kid

a bounced-around teenager

did you peel back past his walls

to show him despite it all

someone cared?

Did you knit your words together

did you conquer all the voices

and send it to a set of eyes

who’d help you put it out

to be read by others?

Did you remain voracious

for more knowledge you could add

to the library you kept stocking

locked securely within

your head?

Let me tell you something

when it’s all said and done

don’t think in terms of hereafter

you’ve only got one here and now

one time around the sun

and when the end is coming

and you face the great beyond

there’s just one question left remaining.

Did you do it?

Why not?