Nirvana

You were there in Nirvana,
Where all joys are feasible,
Sweetly ensconced,
Not a care in the world.
You should have lain still
In that bower forever,
But--fool that you are--
You rustled a leaf.
Then Neptune awoke.
He stomped and he bellowed,
And the fogbanks that cloaked you,
They whimpered away
Revealing the Tartarus shale
Of your bedstead.
Let us pause to conduct
An error analysis.
Are you or aren't you
Ashamed of yourself?
Cavorting about at your senior age,
Carrying on like a likker-lit teen,
Dreamy and dopey and six-tenths obscene!
In the young, it's excusable; in you,
It's disgraceful,
And messy, and silly,
Undignified!
Yet it's "Got to return
To Nirvana, Nirvana;
Next bus to Nirvana,
I've got to return!"
So go make a booking,
And go buy a ticket,
And bribe the officials
That guard the frontier;
It's only a game
To be played while you're breathing,
For once you stop breathing
Further movement's denied.

Reviews

[Tricessimus]

So many great turns of phrase, my favorite was "Dreamy and dopey and six-tenths obscene". I have to admit looking up "Tartarus shale", I know both words but it sounded like something I might want for a kitchen counter or vanity. Did you make that up or is it a countertop option that google doesn't know? This was a very pleasant read and I liked the ending which made me consider an aspect of reincarnation dogma that had not occurred to me; one only progresses toward Nirvana while alive. Thank you for the offering.

[Wilyem Clark]

Thanks. I don't think shale would make a durable counter top, but then it's all in the marketing.