five minute poem

Five Minute Poem                      1/14/2016

If I wrote in five minutes
What is it, I would say?
Except that life is beautiful
And deception unkind.

Living hurts
But in dying
We have no choice
And it won't matter how
Or when. 

We do not get to choose
Who or where
But here we are
Stuck together. 

You can't pick your parents
But they never picked us
We were and we are
Bound by something
Invisible.

A silver string binds us
The people I know
And the ones who read
Against all the odds of eternity
We share and think. 

There must be more
And there must be a plan
Because chance is never enough
And never was at all. 

Doubts come
And fears rise
Coming at us, in all directions
Distracting us
And wasting our time. 

If I loved
Then I made a mistake
But I cannot change it
And it doesn't matter now. 

I made a choice
And I lived it through
Even when it hurt
And even when I bled.

The seconds tick by
And my hands fly 
Across the key board
My brain barely ahead
Open and free.

I pray for wisdom
And I pray to understand
Holding on and letting go
Each in its own time.

This is no accident
That we loved
And it is not a dream
That I have lost.

A line is crossed
And we open up our hearts
An imperceptible step
Irreversible and complete. 

We reach out
Knowing the risk
And no matter how much it hurts
We keep going
And keep trying.

I have not forgotten
And I have not giving up
But rather I set myself apart
And look backwards
Over my shoulder.

I choose to let go
And I choose to let live
But right and wrong remain
Changeless and true.

I have been lucky
And I have been cursed
Squeezed dry
long before
I ever knew to ask. 

It no longer matters
If I get anything back
Because I do not do it for me
But rather for someone else
Far greater than I. 

I pray for many
And I pray for the dead
Just as present now
As they were then. 

One day
We will see
And one day
We will know.

All understood
And every wound healed
Completely free
And truly alive.