In shadows cast by fleeting mortal days,
A young man lingers, heart with terror bound.
His eyes, wide pools of dread, survey the world,
Where every breath seems borrowed, every step
A march toward the void that waits for all.
Death haunts his thoughts, a specter cold and vast,
Its silent jaws unyielding, ever near.
He trembles at the thought of life's last spark,
Of fading into nothing, lost to time,
His name, his dreams, dissolved in endless dark.
"Why must we die?" he cries to starlit skies,
His voice a fragile thread in night's embrace.
The heavens offer naught but silent gleam,
Their ancient fires indifferent to his plea.
He wanders through the streets, past faces worn,
Each one a mirror of his own frail fate.
The old, the sick, the joyous—all must fall.
No wealth, no wit, no fervor can forestall
The hand that claims the breath of rich and poor.
He rails against this truth, his soul in strife.
Yet in his fear, a question stirs within:
What makes a life? What kindles heart and mind?
He ponders spring, where buds burst forth in green,
Their fleeting bloom a blaze of vibrant hue.
The rose that wilts gives way to newer growth,
Its petals strewn to nourish earth’s next dawn.
He sees the river carve its winding path,
Its waters ever-changing, yet the same,
Each wave supplanted, yet the stream endures.
Is life not born of limits, shaped by ends?
If death were banished, would the heart still beat
With urgent fire, with longing’s fierce desire?
Would love still burn, if time could never fade?
Would courage rise, if loss could not be known?
He sees it now: the cradle holds the grave.
The pulse of life is tethered to its close.
Without the shadow, light would lose its glow;
Without the end, beginnings could not be.
Eternity would choke the fleeting now,
And rob the soul of meaning’s fragile spark.
He stands beneath the stars, no longer cowed.
Though fear still lingers, softer now, subdued,
He finds a quiet peace in life’s brief span.
To live is to embrace the end’s approach,
To dance within the circle of the years,
Each moment sweeter for its swift farewell.
The young man breathes, his heart no longer chained,
And steps into the world, alive, afraid,
Yet whole—his fear a thread within the weave
Of life, where death and being intertwine.