cancer
and a moment of reflection
on the nature of one's own finitude

time now for life to turn on the 
need for one's own private apocalypse 
and the sacred nature of this moment 
of recognition

i am confronted with the enormity of 
the task of completing the work of a 
full and rich lifetime 
and can only speculate as to whether
time is a friend or a scourge of limitations

i mean is there time enough
to see things through?

maybe to the highly conscious our lives 
assume their significances because there 
is in reality not enough of it 
but the attempt to not leave loose ends 
must proceed even in the face of the 
best of exhaustive efforts

i am finite with death as my companion 
and in this there is a total acceptance 
of order and calm

the final legacy of life is the knowledge 
of the assurance that i was there....