The Beating Breathing Present

They were uncomfortable with silence
They heard time pass and in the passage death
Which they had seen in all its violence
Reminded with each heartbeat every breath
Agonies soon to be realities
Were coming to conquer their common sense
And comfortable commonalities

The ache at the end of life grows intense
Does not go away but makes us obey
Toward the disappointed appointed day
When the ache may make us better or worse

I saw them struggle with their certainty
They ached for order in their universe
Had sacrificed themselves from hope to faith
They heard time pass and in the passage death
Slow and silent and slouching up the stair
Would soon bear them up there or else down where
They worried about throughout haunted lives

Now I am comfortable with silence
I hear time pass and in the passage death
Which I have seen in all its violence
Reminds me how each heartbeat every breath
Presents a present of sufficiency
Now comes to conquer with uncommon sense
To make nonsense of commonalities

Except for death as sure as death is one of these
But after agonies it leaves as it arrives
The beating breathing present for the future from the past
A moment lived as though it were because it was the last

+Steven Curtis Lance



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