~Ungrateful ... the numbering of the days...

Someday,

in the quiet of your sleep,

you will awaken

because

you feel the soul-burning pen

of life

and death

etch the meaning of

“ungrateful”

into the very fiber of your being.

There it will stay,

forever --

all your life

until the day you die --

and every once in a while

between now and then

it will tear at your heart;

you will hear

every harsh word

every untruth

every bitter and cutting utterance

you let slip from your lips,

and nothing will quench the fire,

nothing will silence the demons

because the ground is closed

and the green has grown over

and “I’m sorry” can never be heard

or seen

or felt

again.

Life will be lived

and will end

just the way you wrote it.

And when the book closes

and the pages age,

every word

written there

will be the words you spoke today.

Once the book closes,

the publishers’ mission is complete,

and

it is

what

it is.