Our agreement with it is sealed prior to our birth,
before we possess the cognitive skill to fathom its meaning.
Early on we worry not, since such concern is of little worth
for it has little renown for early arrival. When so doing,
invariably it’s denounced as terrible, as a tragic assassin.
Its arrival is usually sudden, frequently a violent happenstance.
For decade upon decade of life it only unexpectedly enters in,
swooping down randomly at the speed of a lightning bolt’s lance,
with the subtlety of a car crash, to rarely remove one of our peers.
As decade stacks upon decade, it increases unwelcomed appearances;
Now described as unfortunate, its thievery grows among our fears.
By the time six decades have accumulated, our current circumstances
are like a storm rumbling over the horizon, ever more threatening.
With increasing regularity it begins pruning our peers, now using
failed muscles, ruptured veins, carnivorous cells, organs malfunctioning
to announce its arrival, which no longer remains so very unexpected. Adding
fifteen years more, we now sleep with it in the room, always close by.
Sometimes now it becomes a friend, delivering peace and blessed relief.
Whenever it arrives, death is our destiny – if we live, we assuredly shall die.