You scratch at a door worn down by many

Nails fragile and weak

From a lifetime coated in dust and dirt 

You worked till the chill drenched your bones

And your eyes fogged with the frost

Of a thousand winters

Yet you still struggle 

Against the crushing weight 

Of the oaken door

That marks your fate.

You hear a soft hymn

Floating through stale air

With a warmth that cannot reach you

Where the roses end and asphodel begin

Where the ribbon is cut

Faded and aged

Where mint drowns out 

The scent of the dead

Your story set in mighty stone

One day to be worn away

With your memory.

The flower petals crunch

With the creak of your wheelchair

As you still struggle

Grasping for waxen leaves

For the doorknob 

Though the other side is no longer yours to see

Deep down you know this

But who could accept so eagerly

The dying light of our waning time.

From a lifetime coated in dust and dirt

You wonder what could have been

If instead of this sand slipping out the hourglass

Sugar could bring nearer peace

If pearls clung to your neck

And diamonds hung from your ears

Would release truly be so sweet

Though still would stand

The wooden door?

With billions of stories told

Dying in dimming sunlight 

Could your’s have been told any differently?

If your footsteps left gold in your wake

If not a single tear ever needed to fall

If every moment you filled with charity

If you had the perfection of the heavenly

Could those final grains in the glass

Be looked at with a grin?

Nevermore

Would it matter 

Would it.

With jewels and only laughter all the way

With sunlight marking every day

With the heavens always opened

And the gods always full of love

That would not change

The human fear

Of our errors and looming ends.

The door stands evermore

Impassive and cold

Only for what we lack 

To understand

No matter life

No matter the choices made

Our mortal quarrel is meaningless 

For that which never crumbles 

And never grows old

Is not in our control

So we must fight 

Some of the hardest human urges and

Accept

That which you did not do.