Does It Rhyme?

This is entitled

MORTAL


I wake up from the nightmare,
an iron band around my chest.
That thought has come unbidden,
and again disturbed my rest.

Someday you are going to die,
that horrid statement falls--
a vision with no vision,
a voice that never calls.

A future lies before me:
adulthood, age, and death.
I cannot quite imagine
what comes after that

unless

the ancient stories tell it
the way it really is;
but still I cling to life
because

that is all there is.

copyright JB 2003