The Simplicity of Life
by John Herlihy

We live precariously in the age of recompense;
Our belief systems don’t always make full sense.
One man’s premonitions appeared in his dreams,
Presenting contradictions to what his life seems.
What did he see before him but a massive scale,
Whose heavy balance of weight told its own tale.

He had colored the lines of life with reds and blues,
Dripping from the arch of a rainbow’s varied hues.
How he remembered all those falling autumn leaves,
Taking delight in the sheer color awash in the trees.
How the leaves briefly, reluctantly fall to the land,
As if fighting on their own the wind to withstand.

The surprise of life perhaps derives from its simplicity;
Happiness, love, and friendship bring their own felicity.
Of all the words that have fallen from tongue and pen,
No words or pen as mighty as “what might have been.”
And yet, more mighty and even sad is what we now see,
As we live our lives encountering “what ought not to be.”

How he marveled in wonder at the simplicity of life,
Cutting through all sadness and misery with its knife.
The world is not a scale where we are solemnly judged,
Life’s simplicity an adventure to be lived, not begrudged.
He knows what happened as he approaches the end,
He now accepts the world as his companion and friend.