The signpost a warning
  a resting black swan

Its flight to perdition
  last call from beyond

With roses ungifted,
  their thorns bury deep

Last moon a reminder
  a reckoning steep

The doctor’s watch broken
  your time shorter still

His prognosis a token
  beyond suture or pill

He asks if you’re ready,
  you say that you’re not

You ask if it matters…
  the main lesson untaught

And into the night
  you try once again

To find deeper meaning
  to reach beyond blame

But those last final minutes
  only serve to remind

What the jaded and hoping
   —are never to find

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)