Requiem
What giant universal hand
reached down
to snatch you from
the final jaws of death?
What unfeeling turning
of galactic wheels-
what living force without-
returned your breath?
How can it be
that you who welcomed death
so easily,
can now be standing at my side
without a tear, without
an outward sign of fear-
a living monument to miracles,
a living will to remind me
of my vulnerability?
The words you left behind
filled up an empty space
where you once stood-
but even words can fade with time
and memories can die.
When so much life has gone before
and some in pain and youth,
and I have had my chance with death
a thousand times,
and truth
is still a hard cloak to put on,
what privileged claim do I declare
that lets the machinery of time
replace you here?
I stare in disbelief
afraid that you will fade
before my eyes
and I will know the price of death
again,
and I will have no compromise.
For I have spent my soul's worth
for this chance-
and it will not come again.
Each second now
is beyond a measurable worth;
and I have come to learn the value of my life-
looking through the meaning of your sacrifice.
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