Life Rolls On And On

One sorry war after the next,
Does life, roll by in endless
Twists and turns.
Without forgiving, lest it should
Be seen to be an easy master,
Life, must burn the weak 
And warn the lazy, life must turn
The feeble into the mighty.
Life can teach us, but we must learn
Its hard lessons, lest we fail
Ourselves, and those who look
With hope to our achievements.
Then when they too are set to roll
Along with Life's tumultuous billows,
They will say, for comfort;
"Some before us did it too, and they won."

Vagabond

Cast out by my family,
I, alone, even without my self
Walk the lonely road,
Dejected and self despised.

Only the dirt, wind and dried leaves
For some measure of company.
Even they are whipped up
And swept away from my path.

Before my foot falls.
My shadow cannot cling to me.

Yet it is these numerous rain-drops
That bother to say "Hello"
Before they plunge into the
Puddles gathering by the road;
(A fate most unlike mine)

They have some welcome;
They dance with me to my
Tunes of sadness;
On my shoulders a quick ballet;
Some do a foxtrot, a waltz.
The funny ones do the cha-cha,
Those like me, a gracious swan dance,
Before they plunge in together with their kind.

If only I were a rain-drop, as they are,
Insignificant, yet loved all the same.

Death, You Could Not Take Me

Singing like a swan in its death throes,
There's a quaint wonder in the sight.
Gracious even in doom,
Daring Death to look into her eyes
To see, as her spirit lingers
On the threshold of this life forsaken,
As her soul straddles the corridors
Sundering life from the After.
When that faint fire in her eyes
Grows blue and colder,
Her breath shorter and more desperate,
And the chills drape over her sullen form,

Even then, her steel gaze is fixed on his eyes;
Death spies, transfixed in his own passion.
And as unexpected rays of light once more grace her face,
A smile of victory lingers a while on her blood-red lips,
Her tongue slithers clean and speaks these last defiant words
Which will resound eternally in the vast chambers
Of Time and its Eternity:

"Death, you could not take me."