Death Walks Beside



Youth ran away toward the front,
  as death pursued from the rear

Catching me inside the paradoxical
  whipsaw of life

I stopped, as the boy continued into the distance;
  but the reaper stopped too

Wanting me to run some more,
  preferring to attack from behind

As I turned to face my stalker, his eyes went down;
  and his presence cast no shadow

He took two steps back, but I reached for his hand
  while saying:

         “Walk with me, keep up with me;
          your job here still not finished
          The boy has indeed gone; but
          the man is not yet ready to go”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2017)
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Submitted by KurtPhilipBehm on August 29, 2017

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
71

Quick analysis:

Scheme XX XX XX XX XA XX XXXA X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 610
Words 106
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 1

Kurt Philip Behm

Longtime writer with twelve books in publication. Three of them Poetry. : The Death Of The Playground : The Sword Of Ichiban : Searching For Crazy Horse : Darkening Sun : An Anthology Of Perception-Vol's 1 & 2 : After Midnight : Sammy And Bumpers : The Fall City Mandate : Revenge Along The War Trail : Death from The Sky more…

All Kurt Philip Behm poems | Kurt Philip Behm Books

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