



Things To Do While Waiting by Ken Sanes Here are some things we can do with our lives

before our departure inevitably arrives:

we can ask the world to be more humane

or learn to talk clever, witty, urbane;

we can think a lot about all kinds of sex --

locations, positions, revenge on the ex --

or keep pumping iron to pump up our pecs;

and we can chase after money until we get rich

or carve out a comfortable, anonymous niche.

We can even try to live on in our writing

by being extensively quoted and read

but, whatever we do in the course of our life,

our sad common end is we end up dead.

We can gorge on ice cream and apple pie

and try to forget that one day we’ll die;

we can flex and admire ourselves in a mirror

or be a subway creep who keeps getting nearer;

and we can save lots of puppies with floppy ears

and clumsy paws and sad pleading eyes,

but the truth about life in this veil of tears

is that everything living meets its demise.

And even when things are really first rate,

we instinctively know that it’s already late

because the clock is set at a minute to midnight

and each minute edges us closer to fate --

and eyeing the clock with a hint of alarm

still won’t stop us from buying the farm.

So take pleasure in living, enjoy while you can,

because nothing is going according to plan.

And when you finally fall into all of that nothing,

it won’t even rise to the blankness of stone.

That is the calamity each of us faces,

and each of us is forced to face alone. Poems About Life: Homepage You are welcome to send me an email to

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Copyright © 2010-2013 Ken Sanes