Survival

What does it matter if we're to lose our mind?
     As mem'ry fades,
           And we then lose our grip?
                If all that lasts for us here in this life's
                     Survival –
                          One dark and endless trip?

I asked what name he used –
     Used what he said –
           I thought.
                But nowhere near the Mark that was –
                    Reaction quite severe
                         Was what it brought.

Out in the darkness of night
     Here in this town
          Some teens – quite drunk –
               Proclaim their clouded minds
                    With loudness of a manhood
                          So recently attained –
                               They squander –
                                    While we desperately hold on.

Then others,
     When younger,
          Get trapped,
               In prisons with bars of maddening state –
                    Prevent it?
                         Avoid it?
                              As down the slippery slope –
                                   Surrender?
                                        How with this ever can one cope?

Age comes,
     Disease,
          And loss of faculties –
               We shuffle, stumble, slur our halting speech;
                     See others, now,
                          Just as they used to be
                               While first ones slip
                                      Towards their early end.

Then hearing young,
      Bravado on their lips
            Face carefree,
                 Blithely, life ahead;
                      Not comprehending just how short
                           That youthful stage of life –
                                How soon they'll helpless be,
                                    Or lost,
                                         Or dead.

Take mom –
     Five years in nursing home
          More years ahead –
               Perhaps quite long.
                     Survival is not wonderful
                          As it's made out to be,
                               If life goes on
                                    Beyond
                                           Our time
                                                To roam.

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