Life: A Poem By Alfred Joseph

Life! When she whips you

And dashes your dreams to the rock

The rock of disappointment

What do you do?

When before your very eyes

You watch your age adding up

And responsibilities piling up

What do you do?

When the hopes of siblings

Seem to hang upon your neck

All eyes seem stayed on you

What do you do?

In search of greener pasture

Many have wandered

Into the den of misery

And to untimely death have surrendered

The e'er perched tongue of mother Sahara

And the insatiable womb of Lady Mediterranean

Has gulped with utmost glee

The waters of perspiration that flee

From the broken pores of hustlers

And many a glorious destiny

Has stayed buried 'neath that tomb

Life!

If I may but ask

Why aren't thou fair?

Why laden our hearts with fear

Until our vigor is lost to strenuous task?

The struggle for survival

Has forced many a youth

To forfeit their very root

And stagger from their land of birth

Into the waiting arms of cold death

While loved ones still await their arrival

Oh! Life!

You never cease to befuddle me.

Life!

If you can hear my husky voice

And see the stream from my sullen eyes

The warm blood from my bleeding heart

And the sickening groans of my soul

I beseech thee to be fair for once

For many will quit thee given the choice

Open thou the fountain of fortune

And let the waters of relief flow

Life! Be thou considerate

For many are desperate

Desperate to survive

In haste to arrive.

Alfred Joseph

#AJPoetry

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