A Little Death

There is all this dying going on – natural,

unnatural, on the battlefield, in bed,

necessary, accidental, welcome,

terrible. Such a deluge

of corpses – then the life force

bringing things into being,

a whirligig of lust and creation,

conception and destruction,

nurturing and rearing,

decline and extinction.

I’ve seen too much of it.

It resonates in my bones.

Exhausting to watch

and to live. So recently it was all

exhilarating, the births, deaths,

pairings and partings,

a grand, barbaric spectacle.

Lately sunsets have seemed

like little deaths.

A sunset last week – seen from a cliff over the Pacific –

all soaring rays of light, ragged,

vermillion clouds, the fade to black.

Still breathtaking.

Bob Evans