Death

Death arrives for me as a punishment,
not for a crime,
not for my guilt,
only as payment for living.
It forms an escape from the human perspective,
but upon entrance it
reveals and entraps us in death
as it cannot here be known.
For from death their is no relief,
not the escape the human mind sees.
Only pain, with life hanging in front,
ungraspable, taunting.
Like a lingering feeling,
the wretched shard of life you hated,
has become your only hope
your dream
and to think that it you hated.
Now then, dost thou deserve that life
which you so threw away upon its troubles.
But just when it reaches your grasp,
death pulls you further, further away.

Jeffrey Hook

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