Life is fragile, and exits on its own timetable. The beauty of the rose is ephemeral, yet is reborn every Spring. The Mayfly dances for an hour and is gone, yet to the Mayfly the dance lasts a lifetime. The dinosaurs wandered the Earth for hundreds of millions of years, yet are gone, while Man has lived a tiny fraction of that time and believes he is immortal. The distant sound heard by all living things is the swishing of the scythe.

I believe that I’m included
In that group of simple men
Who believe they’re not deluded
By rank sophistry, but then
I look ‘round at all about me
Who think such as they can’t fail
And who listen not and doubt me
When I say that life is frail
Fossils show that life is given
Then is taken in its time
Civil life is often riven
Thrashing in a death throe mime
Life is rare in God’s great meeting
Of the chosen in His care
Life is good but oh so fleeting
One brief moment in the glare
Of the suns that light the heavens
Of the universe so vast
Life that is and was still leavens
Both the future and the past