An Old Man’s Death
06 July 2014
PAUL WAUGLA WII
An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry
He stares at the beckoning wall of nothingness.
It is here and here alone
On his death bed
That the entire scheme of life
What has been, is now, and would ever be
Is put in absolute perspective.
The nothingness before him
Is an intertwining maze of blackness
That emerges and merges into a million interlocking threads.
On the threshold of departure into the unknown
His life ebbs and flows
Waiting for the final moment to arrive.
Stealthily…gradually … but inevitably
That final moment comes to him.
Looking into my eyes, he was seeing
And yet unseeing.
Looking beyond the temporal into something profound,
He surely would make a profound confession
If he could.
Not a chance!
He passed on, peacefully, into oblivion.
A treasure trough of life’s experiences
Gone with him, gone with the man.
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