Only One Life

Only one life. Is it so?
I wonder.

So brief a glimpse
In great History’s span,

Never to journey
Beyond this horizon,

Never to walk through
This garden again?

Feathers unfurled,
Wings newly tested,

And grounded already
Before we have flown.

Roles upon roles to play,
Grand the rehearsals,

Curtain just up,
And we’re closed out of town.

Vast the blue seas
And my ship still at anchor,

So large a vineyard
For one glass of wine.

So many -isms
Faiths and philosophies,

And still in a sect
Of one only... mine.

With so much dead time
Twixt the grave and the judgment,

Let’s go round again
As a failed Buddhist can.

I flunked every test
I know of for Heaven,

But I’ll study harder.
Let’s test again.