On Life and Death

Between life and death, I employ
my nobler mind; and sojourn here
despite my soul’s most meager joy.
Can discord’s violence be near
my slender bliss to now destroy
my furtive hopes that are so dear?

I, a mild soul who lives in hope,
seek sanctuary from death and strife;
and struggle valiantly to cope
and thrive (as if my looked-for life’s
beyond escaping from the scope
of the edge of the Reaper’s scythe).

It’d be more easy to just die,
than to live, flourish, — and so give
myself the gift of soaring high!
I engineer and thus contrive,
than let salvation pass me by
without a fair chance to survive.

© Ngoc M. Nguyen. All rights reserved. 18 January 2021