To Finally Breath Again

With so much violent death in the world, one is easily compelled to ponder the why of it all. Is it to transcend any supernatural or scientific speculation of what is and consider what isn't...yet?

To Finally Breathe Again
                     by Odin Roark

What will it be like,
This shuffle for a last breath,
This moment pondering
From where our final card
Came from,
Is going to?

Why must such contemplation
Mirror childhood into adolescence,
Adulthood’s painful maturity,
Retirement’s losing hand?

Oh, the clinging,
The stakes all in,
The air becoming thin.

Do we fear such a breath will disclose
We’ve played our game poorly,
Now having to concede to an infinite universe
That needs never reveal its face-down card?

Perhaps the supreme fold is to exhale our selfness,
Allow a quiet tempest of inexorable existence
To shuffle another deck of chance,
Wager the next round without fear,
Throw down the high and low with honor,
Give integrity its final due,
And maybe…
Just maybe…
Allow conscience to finally breathe again.