Why do we think eternal life is ours
When by accident of sex we made our arrival?
The clues have been close at hand since we could read –
All life has life and all life must lead lives
Of determinate lengths after which all life fades.
How better than that of a flower or a worm we believe our lives to be,
And how greater than our most cherished companions
Is our life after the heart stops.
What is it in the human brain that makes us yearn
For more than we have been given,
And more than we could imagine for those lesser beings
That devote their brief lives to us
Without reservations
Without conditions
Without expectations
Without contracts
While we who have such a great need of wealth
Become stingy with our own kin
As if we did not believe in heaven after all.
(poem on the birthday of a dead son)
~ Laura Waterman Wittstock
