[goodbye great-grandma]
the gone days of youth
&
youthful thinking
expired
as soon as i
saw
the Truth.
long before the pubic-hair,
changing-voice,
and female cares;
in a chapel---baby blue
my first corpse.
someone i cared about,
someone i knew.
in those playground days
that number was a precious few.
it hit me right there
as i stared,
trying not to stare.
i walked up the aisle
from out my mother's hands
looking at death
square in the eyes.
a child of maybe five?
death looked at me
and winked.
"it's not your time yet,
laddy. but someday we will
meet."

we can either sit and wait
for death
in our office chairs,
lay-z-boy's, bucket-car-seats;
or
take each moment as it comes;
as something precious
before its done.