Natural Causes

June 7 2012

They say he died

of natural causes.

As if his end had been pre-ordained,

set in motion

at the moment of birth,

now methodically brought

to its conclusion.

Do they say "natural cause"

because to explain

would complicate things?

Or as consolation,

as if he had slipped so easily away

no one need suffer?

Either way
the natural order of things

went unperturbed

when he passed.

Planets circled, stars still burned,

the black hole at the heart of the galaxy

devoured light.

And millions of single-celled creatures

were returning his body to earth,
as is their nature.

The mortal remains

that resemble him,

but are not.

Had a soul departed

some life force gone?

Had the critical mass of neurons

that sprang to consciousness

been more than flesh and blood?

Is remembrance enough

to count?

The young cannot imagine old age

and death is inconceivable.

Yet their lives, like ours

have no consequence

in the magnitude of time and space,
from hot-house microbes
to the dust of stars. 

The hard truth
of oblivion.

Before we were born

we were not missed.

And now, regardless

the universe will unfold

orbits decay

time run down.

Just as nature

was set in motion,

plays itself out.

He died of natural causes.

As good an ending

as one could hope.