Death

Death is the abrupt end of life

Hurts the beloved as sharply as a knife

It is regarded with terror by most men

For none knows how it comes, or even why or when

 

People are apt to think that it is a good end

Of us, poor sinners, who all know will never mend

And God has been kind in ending our life here

For the extremes man may go to, is the basis of their fear.

 

Death has many meanings for different sorts of persons

For the motherland, it is an additional loss of her sons

And for the city or town, its one less in a lac

One more, on the pathway, that is the dead men’s track

 

For the family and relations, a picture of grief is drawn

Their tears and their sorrow, for the member who has gone

Makes them pale and haggard and look tired and worn

They cry for the person they had regarded as their own

 

For the community it means the loss of a member

Who for his services, all will long remember

For his mates it will be the loss of a good friend

Whose life, they surmise, has at last, reached the end

For the lawyer it means the reading up of the will

Of the client who is now cold, silent and still

And for the business partner, it is clearing up the bills

And handling a great deal, without any ill-will

 

For the grave-digger it’s just another job

For the master of ceremonies – a cold and tedious job

And for the numerous people that gather by the grave

It s the end of an acquaintance, who was friendly and yet brave

 

And for our Creator, its calling back to his domain

Yet another person whose life has been of gain

As well as being of pain, and also half in vain

Of the obedient man, who has been acknowledging his Reign

 

It also means calling to task the atheists of the world

Who, at religion, had contemptuously, their lips curled

But above all, it’s the end of our short sojourn on earth

Where we had been tarrying ever since our birth