So the pride

So the pride
      
so the ambition

so the greed
      
all these will fail
will fall finally
into the earth’s fissures
when the strands 

of our lives 
      
are unravelled


what is flesh
and what is bone

and what is our mortality
what wealth will carry us

over to the other side
beyond the lanes

of life and death
 ?   

the skin stretched

but the eyes hueless
      
and the tongue still

silent day and night
      
a cinder pile

a taste consumed
      
in ash
 : only love
warm
 in the memory

John Lyons