" The drum"

 The drum √

For when the time has finally come

Of longer shadows, fading drum

And every beat of drum and heart

So slowly gains the leading part

Of every moment's thought

Does life become more precious?

Each moment more infectious

With love and laughter for this life?

Or droll with dread and dreary strife?

What is so dearly bought?

When does this life, in fact, begin?

With bleating on the endless wind?

When first we burst upon this earth

All raucous from our recent birth?

Is that the moment caught?

Or when this life and love we grasp

With every moment, cause to gasp

At life's so many fickled ways

And revel in the tricks she plays

That life has never taught?

When does this life begin to end?

When body stops, no more to mend?

Or, when the heart no longer cares

And, when the mind no longer spares

Some time for reveled thought?

I was born the other day

Though many years had gone their way

I did not live until that time

Those many years without a rhyme

Were poorly sold and bought

I’ll live this life, each moment comes

Each heartbeat rival to the drums

No longer will I wile the wait

Delayed unto some moment great

I’ll waste a moment not

Now, feel the drumbeat of the life

Don't wait upon a moment rife

So full of patience and denial

As if it were some endless trial

So full of endless rot

And, if I live another day

No longer will I let it stray

From life adorned until the time

That I no longer will the rhyme

And dance, the lady caught

When does life end, you might well ask

When life becomes an endless task

Without an end in mindless sight

And on and on, an endless fright!

I shudder at the thought

No, dead is not the end of things

Nor death the dirge whose ending brings

Forth all the waste upon this earth

Now, here, beside the frozen firth

Break open to the spot

Where seas of love can well be found

Where life is bold and well renowned

For ’tis the will that leads the way

To endlessly bring love and play

And, that is what I've got

She is the thought that's bold and free

With fiercest love, she anchors me

To all of life's rare sweetest blessings

And all its lovely, wondrous dressings

Beyond the slightest doubt

There is no more to life than that

Let's speak no more of kit and kat

So, well upon this tireless way

I revel now and I do say

It is of love I spout

Oh, tally up the tender sums

Life echoes to the beat of drums

That pound along the endless way

As if each beat did clearly say

We are still here and stout

And dally more if that's your will

Each beat a pulse to cause a thrill

Each breath a song to always fill

The heart no longer sitting still

Each moment to the top

And, still along the way I go

To toss the hammer, bell the blow

The hammer do I surely throw

The bell is there so that I know

Just at the end full stop