Rise and Fall

Rise and Fall

Oh, yes!

(Alive, I guess?)

It's such a splendid morn,

This day—at last!—that I am born.

I've met my mother—and my father, too—

Though neither of them seems too certain what to do.

But soon they learned—it really did not take so very long,

And then our life at home resembled something very like a song.

I grew. I went to school. I made some friends. I found a job I sort of like.

I tried to keep as active as I could. I jogged for many years—I rode a bike.

I met a woman whom I've loved for years. Some children came. They grew. Then moved away.

They’d learned their basics, loved and lost. And each would learn the steps in Life’s ballet.

And soon—so soon—I slowed. And knew that it was time I should retire.

I did. And realized I'd had all that I could desire.

I slowed some more. And saw that all was fading out.

Of what was coming next I had no doubt.

And then the battle for each breath—

I breathed in synch with Death.

“It's time to go?

Oh, no!”

 

So our relationship, mutatis mutandis,

Seemed no more well—but full of foul disease.

Shakespeare Couplet: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (46)

The  Duke decides that they will see today

Our “Pyramus”—oh, yes, it's Bottom’s play! (5.1)