Life's Cross

To be or not to be? What a question!
Is this to be a rant, a confession
Of how obstinate and stubborn a man
Can be when he refuses to get a tan
By way of sunlit walks upon the shore
Or by way of spending time evermore
Trapped, self imprisoned by his own deceit,
By the mind that is itself made replete
By repetitions of melancholic
Nihilism in a false sopranic
Voice that screams of dreariness, woe, and pain?
No need have we for the dreaded refrain
That is sounded in several different ways
By such analogies of darkened days
Of dreamlessness, of weighty minds gone dark;
For how can one dream unless first he is?
How a flame unless he is first a spark?
And from what possible source comes a kiss
Without first owning a pair of lips that
Can join that of another? You're minds at
A strange place if you think that taking arms
Against yourself will solve the great alarms
That have plagued your health for so many days,
Months, and possibly years. Such things are meant
That you should seize the day and woo your love
By means of staying your right vengeful hand
In order to face the great heaven above!
Let the dead bury the dead, live on in
Silent memory of them and hope to win
Some peace through living still in this dread land.
For to be or not you certainly are;
To consider otherwise is quite bizarre.
And if you should seek not to be what then?
You still are! A firm realization
You yourself made when you said that the dark
Holds mysteries unknown; a nightingale
Sings one to his or her death, while a lark
Encourages life to go on. A snail
Has more life than you though he go so slow
And carries more in state than you in yours!
Consider not death, such thoughts are for bores.
Live your life, though a cross, and simply be!
Life's fare cross; joyful reality.

                      Life's Cross, (c) Luke Bennette, March 2012