PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

We voluntarily rush towards oblivion
Every night at bedtime.
We close our eyes and hope
To shoot ourselves, hurtle ourselves
Towards 'no consciousness'
If we are lucky, and sleep deigns
To collect us in its arms.

"Come, sleep, come.....and take us away."

How is this different from death which
We fear?

You say that the key is that
We can come back
To our stable everyday world:
"Damn, it's 6 o'clock already!
Time to get up and repeat my tasks...."
You say this is the crucial difference, but
It can't be the pleasure of that alarm clock
We crave......

.....Maybe it's our sense of duty:
I have come to accomplish something,
And it will weigh heavily on me
If I don't.

To the point that relief from duty is
Not welcome?
"Soldier! Stand down. At ease. Return to your barracks!"
---"No, Captain, no!
---I have not done
---What I must do!"

So, there is some inner drive,
Inner mission....
And leaving before the mission is accomplished
Would be a heavy burden.

Then is it our 'mission' that makes
Death the enemy?
Our UNREMEMBERED mission?

Children! Perhaps is it children...
Caring for others....
Yet the unencumbered also
Curse death.

I keep circling back.
Animals don't hold death
As thought in their minds.
They live in the moment.
They DO have strategies
To elude death from that
Which menaces,
But do they fear it
When it comes gently, like sleep?

I think not.

So why do I dread
A doctor's bad news?
How does this differ from
"You have won an all expenses paid
Vacation to the island of your choosing"?

Pain, you say.
Yes, we all dread pain.
But sometimes morphine smoothens the way.
Even if 'no pain' were promised,
Would we then go gladly
Into that good night?

I don't understand how my mind
Relaxes in the one:
Sleep---------
Yet fears the other:
The sleep with no alarm clock.

Do we not 'go somewhere'
When we dream?

It's like a bubble world, so fragile......
This daily grind is like concrete.

Do we think the bubble will
Not hold us?

Maybe it is plenty strong
To hold what is so light.