The Beginning of Death
by John Herlihy
A question comes to mind,
When does death begin.
We think of it as if blind,
As if death were a sin.
If you die before you die,
Death will die with you.
if you die before you die,
Death will not slay you.
The beginning of life,
As if living in a haze.
The beginning of death,
As if living in a maze.
At the beginning of life,
The future spread unbound.
At the beginning of death,
The past as thread unwound.
Floating away,
In the wake of life.
Memories still hold sway,
The emotions still rife.
We cannot imagine,
Before being born
We cannot imagine,
Life when from the world torn.
We enter the theater of life,
We strut a while on the stage.
Taking leave of the theater of life,
The book of life turning its final page.
Anything that has a beginning,
Must also have an ending.
Anything that has an ending,
Finds hope in a new beginning.
Just as I salute the beginning,
So also do I salute the ending.
We have our moments in time,
A life treasured as only mine.
Life manifests a beginning,
Death manifests an ending.
Life marked by an ending,
Death marked as a beginning.
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Copyright ©John Herlihy
Friday 23 May 2025
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If it takes about three years before the infant becomes four aware of the world and up to 20 years before becoming mature enough to be truly independent, might not the decline be also lengthy? Why people need to retire and to wind down their lives as their abilities fail. And in the last three or four years, be totally dependent upon others?
For those of us who want to go it alone, we might have to cut it off early before we get to that childlike, totally dependent stage, like infancy.
A lot to think about.
Ron