Taking stock, I was just about done in,
Looking at the world with a lopsided grin,
A bullet hole stuck ingloriously in my gut,
I was feelin’ on the other side of a sorry mutt.
A squirrel ran by looking like a bundle of fur,
No doubt I looked kicked in by a random spur.
A love-sick coyote in shadow against a desert sun,
Howling to heaven, looking forlorn and undone.
The sight of my dripping blood made me shiver;
The blood in red rivulets draining my life a river.
We take chances in life; but never think of dyin’;
We live as if we live forever and just keep tryin’.
Who would have thought, today of all days;
It wasn’t anything special, just a day on its way.
I do not feel ready to finally give up the ghost;
What I suddenly feel is the love of life most.
What do I see but death taking over my eyes;
No need, I guess, to be like a child that cries.
For me, I now see heaven for what it’s worth;
My life a road stretched behind me to my birth.
Death is a crossroads with an open door,
That when crossed and shut puts a person under the floor.
The final moments beat one by one like a second heart;
They will soon stop beating and simply fall apart.
I wanted to say “what next”; but the words grew wings.
No shadow, just feathers and plumes, flapping in the wind,
As if my heart was near to stopping and no longer sings.
All my doubts just flew away into the sky of my thought,
As my soul lifted away without a thought into the sky.
With one final breath, it now felt good to say goodbye.
"We take chances in life; but never think of dyin’;".......... How very true! Never, until recently, has this ever struck me as being so very true! Wonderful write, John!
While not in the stock market, you certainly did take a look at this perspective--eminent death. While I wouldn't condone any dead people "under my floor." It was a fairly good metaphor.
When it comes right down to it, it's probably better to die from violence when you don't have much time to think about it. Rather than the slow death of 1000 infirmities that mark old age.
'We take chances in life; but never think of dyin’. . .' because we are the people of fun, not of duty. That is the reason why 'We live as if we live forever and just keep tryin’. . .' If not the best, this piece is one of the best, John. Cheers, alex
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
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and that final breath I take,
I hope I'm asleep in bed.
I don't wanna die awake.
Michael D.
Love ya!
Jane
When it comes right down to it, it's probably better to die from violence when you don't have much time to think about it. Rather than the slow death of 1000 infirmities that mark old age.
Ron
compelling read