Timor Mortis Non-Conturbat Me

For whenever it happens

That your forward vision

Collapses in the extreme 

Whether due to old age

Accident unforeseen

Or merely collateral damage

Resulting from a major disaster

And the vanishing point

Suddenly appears near at hand

It’s more than enough

To keep your wits about

Maintaining a stoical bearing

(just like Obdulia has done)

Not so much raging

Against this or that

But contemplative and

Sage-like into the last lap

Timor mortis non-conturbat me

At a certain point

The sum of the holes

Becomes equal or greater

Than the whole of the parts

I mean how much does it really

Bother you now that

You find yourself

Every day growing

A little more preoccupied

By what’s missing

And less attuned

To what’s here

Timor mortis non-conturbat me

 That’s what it feels like anyhow

Like anything might be possible

Even as the corridors have thinned out

Like there’s still no reason for a heart

To be the least bit hardened

Or for the soul to concede

Even an inch of sacred ground

That’s why more and more

As I’ve thought about it

I’ve come to believe

Timor mortis non-conturbat me

By the very grace of God
That’s how we all proceed