At Death Do We Part
My life is my pageant
Of tableaux, entr'actes, and dioramas
Passing in review, the floats--salient
Points displaying my melodramas.
My death's reach waxes unpleasant
With each year candles' waxed resistance;
My future keeps meeting my present,
Begrudged, my past knotted in irrelevance.
My future, once long and fertile,
Gives short notice, now, futility:
All I planned had rotted less versatile,
Belated, senescent debility.
My things, my victories, my rankings--
The stuff of debris, detritus, and flotsam,
Discarded as hand-me-downs, hanging
Others in ignorance, their games, zero-sum.
The wisdom of impending death
Now grades fully my parade;
Perspective--the happiness of last breath,
Air brakes my life; me? Unafraid.
What passes by me now is it--
Meaning divided by destiny--simpler,
A red carpet of rewarding respite:
We all go out pleased, with just a whimper.