If life is a verb, is death a noun? A reply to Charly Priest

It came to mind

A poetry rejoinder to a recent poem “life is a verb” by

Charly priest

If life is a verb

Is death a noun?

Without life

Movement

Strife and trouble

Happiness

Those bubbles that we live in

Popped

Stopped

If life is a verb

Is death a noun

Pinned to a eulogy

The last span of words attached to our human history

Then boom!

Set free

Of movement

Sound

Breath

Death

The noun

Whispered with regret

This earthly husk moved solemnly to

Quiet embrace of timber

Or flame

The name of self

Or other

Perhaps dropped here and there

A noun itself

Becomes used less

And less

Until one day

Gone forever

Never again to be blessed with verb like action

She did

He did

They did

Nothing

Forgotten

Weeds growing around stone monuments

Some chase death

A protection from the ruckus

The pain

The ongoing goingness relentless pursuit of life

But I choose the verb

The noun

Is just too final

I choose life

*thanks Charly – your post triggered a little swirl in the leaves of my mind – not a brilliant riposte but I’m rusty after a few weeks without writing.

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