EPITAPH

EPITAPH

Even in the din of youth when the bustle heaved around me,
There lived within an ancient gnome whose counsel sought and found me.

He heralded the days to come, when time sly as a bandit,
Would beckon me to slip these bonds and gently leave the planet.

He said you'll glide on atmosphere, and whisper in a loved one's ear,
The words of soft surrender dear, to ease the pain of going.

Even in the whirl of days that once seemed so unending,
There lived within a prophet wise, who to my ear came bending.

He trumpeted the final bars of life's perplexing mystery,
And told the story of my life in all its tainted history.

You'll ski down slopes of white, he said, and scale the epic heights
Or flounder in the river Styx, in all its flaming might.

Even in the siren song of childhood everlasting,
When pleasure would not let me broach the mysteries of my passing.

There lived within a wizened gnome who brought me to my senses,
"Prepare to loose your hold and soar, arise and mend your fences".

He said you'll join the vapors vast, all the spirits come and gone,
And drink the nectar, taste the prize, that waits beyond the sun.

For even in these days of awe, the mad onslaught of science,
The life span ever lengthening in the face of man's defiance.

He said somewhere it's written, if you only do the math,
Your sojourn on this earth is brief, compose your epitaph.

-Bruce Potts
Revised Copyright 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED