What will Life bring next?

What will life bring next?

What Messiah will round
the crowded corner
stand upon the slippery soap box
and call me untame?

What Greek goddess
will lay down her robe
and descend from her cloud
and elate and enlighten me?

What hooded lackie of Death
will stalk the many stories
of so-called starving artists?

What benign cancer
will plague my thoughts
and make me feel guilt
for not being fatal?

What historical figure
will step forth and
demand my audience,
of which I have none?

What paper brown novel
or literary text
will wash before my pale face
in the hopes of living for the first time
in half a century?

What will life bring next?

And what will I bring life in return?
What have I to give such a suitor?
What jumbled thoughts,
seemingly less organized each day
will life take as a compliment?
What index will I make
with what will life take from me?
Just a boy even at this age
too pious and centered to care for life
as well as life may care for me
Just a boy even at this age
too broken and tired to believe life's lies
or to tell it's Truths from reality
Just a boy even at this age
who only took from Buddha
that life is suffering
Just a boy who smiled and said
he'd make the most of it
but lived very little, but lived very well
the best and worst he remembers
however equal or dispersed
but most of life, fair lady, he will forget
what life brings to him, he will cherish and regret

Beware false prophets, the prophet said.