The best die first.
While flakes never get the chance
to die
by you –
just leave you r life with no
forwarding
address;
While haters act like
you should
die –
until finally
you leave them bereft;
And while moochers say they would
'die'
without you –
so you leave
to prove them
wrong;
And while posers were never really
there –
an undefined reality, a
shadow of
another's
song.
Amidst those here-gones,
biting bugs,
Those burglars and trail-cars –
who
you only know
by their brief breezes,
or that itching
red they leave,
by your empty shelves or
your echo's
end after they go –
There are those who stand with you,
real and long enough
that you see them still, through that
flurried
blur from the worst:
because they never
drop you,
stick you,
screw you,
fake you
out of their lives …
out of
view …
The best die first.
It intrigues me that many of the words in your poems’ titles are not capitalized, and many of the titles end in ellipses. What is the significance, if there is any, of this? Anyways, after reading this poem, I immediately thought of the time a couple years ago when I asked my physician how could I live long. He jokingly replied, “Be evil”. It seems that “the best die first” while the “posers” with an “undefined reality” living in the “shadow of another’s song” and elude death for much longer. Could there be a correlation here? In a utilitarian sense, caring for others requires more stress and time, while sucking the vitality of others can provide a sustained life. While any logical human would value a selfless person over a selfish one, the real question is: in times of desperation, are we more inclined to exhibit altruistic or parasitic behavior?
ReplyDelete(Re. capitals, I figure if the topic is small, might as well keep the letter small. and most topics are small...so I just started keeping all the titles that way.)
DeleteWhen I read this poem, I think about the struggle the speaker is feeling about the death of a loved one. It speaks to the morbid but common way in which we talk about death. People talk about dying and death all the time in a light-hearted manner, but we rarely think about what that actually means. But in reality, people do die, and tragically, some of the best we know die early. This makes me think about a close family friend who died last year. He was fairly young and had four kids. He was super fit and healthy—he would go surfing every week—and he was going to become a partner at his company. Then suddenly and tragically, he died of heart failure. He was one of the best guys I knew and he would always listen to problems in my life. But just as the poem says, I know that even though he is gone, he is also still with me, and he stands by me. I think this speaks to the kind of legacy that we hope to leave in life. We don’t want to be like the flakes and people who die to prove a point or when they die, they leave only a shadow as if they weren’t there. We want to leave a big and positive impact on the lives of those we know. That is why we try to do good to others so that we can stand with them even when we die. I think this poem really speaks to this innate desire in human nature to become the kind of person others remember.
ReplyDeleteMy eye deleted a word from your last sentence "...the kind person others remember." I like it when eyes read things wrong, but not-wrong :) still standing by you, it's true ~ I think about the days when my best friends will die (or I will leave them). And it helps me to understand old people better: how they live surrounded more and more by ghosts, their hearts kept warm by all those imprints that have lasted long beyond the people that made them.
ReplyDelete