Life Is Death

Why do the living live, but to die?

What do the dying do, but sigh?

How pointless this charade seems.

Life and Death on opposite teams.

With eighty years, life will toy.

Twenty more, death will destroy.

What life is really worth living?

A life taking or a life giving?

You must be careful, you must be willing.

Hurry! The pengelum is swinging.

How strange life has come to be,

Hate, violence, obscenity.

What happened to life, what happened to love?

Life used to be a beautiful dove.

But now life is just dying.

And death is just sighing.

In our coffins, we are lying.

 

-by Pauline Marie Daley

January 2007

 

 

Reviews

[R J Askew]

I was looking for your other poem, but the title of this one caught my eye and I had to read it. I like its sweeping philosophical view. Such a lot in so few words. And there is truth in it. But then there has always been death and grimness around. The 20th century was hugely violent. Men are hightly competitive creatures and there are now more and more of them, squabbling for their place in the sun. This causes friction and will continue to do so as one group edges above another only to be smashed back down again etc etc. Until there are a lot less of us this will go on.