Such Is

By Cliff Lake

 

Such Is

 

Life is the blind alley.

We stumble through it willingly,

Fearing the fall into the trash we thought we had left behind.

 

Life is the searing lights of knowledge ungained.

We grasp at what we think we understand,

Hoping that the truth will not burn.

 

Life is the fog of unknown promise.

The carrot and the stick and the hope,

Believing that our desire will truly be a gain.

 

Life is the cacophony of involvement.

The constant inrush of what we are told,

Too often at odds with experience.

 

Life is the smothering memory of mistake.

We attempt to leave behind the guilt,

Yet cannot learn without pain.

 

Life is the endurance race of existence.

We wonder what good can come of it all,

Would we be missed had we never taken breath?

 

Life is what we have at this moment.

Do we ignore that we can be more,

Or do we plod along in the grayness, hoping that no one will notice?


Life is the opportunity given.

Are the noise and the sights too much?

Or are they the tools we have to use to fashion what good we may?

 

Life is the choice we did not make for ourselves.

We may choose to drift along in it.

We may choose to be better than we are.

 

Cliff Lake 8/8/2022

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2022

Location: Dalton, MA, USA

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