One Last Look
By John Herlihy

One last look is all it takes,
The dying world to remake.
One last glance to finally break,
The savage eye sees its last snowflake.

One last look was all it took;
Within depths, his heart shook.
Beauty still hovering all around,
Melting like twilight into the ground.

Everything he could have ever wanted;
Everything he could have ever known.
One day, a door quietly swings open;
The last day, a door is abruptly closed.

He hears a faint whisper that ties in
With the savage roar of the hungry lion.
He now sees wind in the whispering pines;
He now sees roar in the ocean’s wavy lines.

He saw both mystery and desire;
He saw many fervent hearts on fire.
He saw faces that grumble and snarl;
He heard words that mumble and growl.

What he saw was a multitude of faces;
What he sees now lies between the spaces.
He sees events as a bouquet of forget-me-nots,
One final emotion that ties him up in knots.

That one last look was a look of surprise;
This was a moment only he could devise.
The world gazed thru the eyes of one man dying;
Never more to see, eyes closed fully complying.