Death. Postponed

We learn to live with danger. Around death and dying
Statistics gushing off TV is simply horrifying
As marching soldiers, mankind goes. Through devastation, void
I doubt to bygone we return, it’s thoroughly destroyed

I wish to speak about death. This isn’t pleasant business
I am no doctor con malaise, who is a daily witness
Yet everyone lives on the edge, it’s very close, near
The hidden heed inside the mind, a source of constant fear

The simple fact of the pandemic, us jitters to the core
Death sets an ambush in the open, with fear we abhor
There isn’t one who gets a drift. Of how this all would end
What starts as nothing, cough and sneeze, is hard to comprehend

No one’s immune. The death is waiting. In gulps of air, crowds
You may be next. Don’t think so, yea? Your head is in the clouds
At war one’s killed by bullets. Or shrapnel. Noble end…
And now? A passerby, a clerk. The neighbor, spouse, friend

Small errors lead to someone’s death. That cannot be undone
You may survive and go on living, grief ever in rerun
What was a rare tragic call, stares daily in the face
To young and old, to fat and skinny. A sordid commonplace

With dreams and plans. “In progress work”, alive simple needs,
“Joie de vivre”, life and living, none readily concedes
Pay debts, take care, make your peace, prepare meet thy maker
Leave wills in favor of loved ones, no guess for caretaker

The truth’s by nature impolite. Unpleasant, hard to swallow.
We all can go without much notice. To places no one follows
To cheat is bad. Except one notion – cheat death, in ways you can
The ripper games by no rules. Don’t play with your lifespan

Be sneaky, crafty, smart, attentive. Go hiding, if you must
To breathe, to work and stick around, small price to readjust
Mourn those stripped of golden years, young shattered dreams no more
Those gone would wants us live forever, to settle their score

When it is our turn to go, with loved ones by the side
The dire want - to be remembered. As lived, not as we died
And not to leave this funny life with tube stuck in the mouth
Without dignified goodbyes before one’s heading south

Folks are perturbed. Meet mortal danger, like death at battlefield
Without ammo, not much amour. Mask – paper, and a lousy shield
It is OK to be afraid. I know, I’m one. Surrender to no fear
Protect the family and friends and anything held dear

Life perseveres. Voids don’t linger, be filled, all in due course
Work, volunteer, be creative, make peace. And love, of course
Two sure things are death and taxes. I choose at every turn
Life over death. Will pay my taxes, it’s such a small concern

The modern man, he didn’t live through other deadly flu
The Spanish one, in waves it swept through Mother Earth, that’s true
Mankind knew nothing of the force and watched with teary eyes
How laid to waste towns big and small, young ladies and the guys
 
Yes, they were here. Just as you, roamed lands. The human clones
Obliviously marching by some older graveyard stones
What travels to the other side? Not much, you go away
Leave your ideas, songs, roads, art. With stories full array

The immortality is hard to gauge. It’s nothing you can buy
Yet you may live beyond your life. Somewhat, give it a try
Leave something of yourself to folks, in gifts and candles lit
The ones that brighten people’s lives. Plus photos, words and wit

These are my words, as I have said. Not much in them is new
In other tongues and other lands, as time quickly flew
Men, so much wiser than myself, of life and death they spoke
To be forgotten over years, with wisdom they invoked

May 8, 2020
New York, USA
© 2020 by Edward Kritsky