Poem for One of the Lost

By Cliff Lake

 

Poem for One of the Lost

 

The tide rolls in.

Have you stopped it?

The stars shine.

Light from a billion miles,

And a billion years,

Do they go unseen?

Would you wish it so?

Would that darken them?

You cannot stop the wind,

You cannot stop the rain.

What then are you?

Just one more life, yes?

A life that if it were not to exist,

To be extinguished,

Cut off,

Or simply never lived,

Would not have kept the sun from shining,

Or the moon hung so prettily.

Yet here you are.

You had no say in that.

You were conceived,

Carried,

And then born without your consult,

And no form submitted for your approval.

And in spite of the life you are,

The world turns.

Others are born,

Their lives are lived,

And they may not know that you do also,

Yet they live.

There are some that know of you.

And their lives may have begun before yours,

And some after,

And will probably continue were you suddenly gone.

But that doesn’t matter.

For your whole life is not yet,

And your whole purpose is not concluded,

And that’s what matters.

The fact that you may not matter,

Doesn’t matter,

Because the future is unknowable,

And your part in it,

Is as yet unwritten.

Stick around,

You’ve got work to do.

And that is what matters.

 

Cliff Lake 5/31/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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