If We Could Live Forever Poem by Laurence Overmire

What would we do
Today
Knowing there was no end
No need to do the things
We think we have to do
Today?

Would we care about one another
In the same way
Or not?

Knowing that mother and father
And sister and brother
And husband or wife
And precious child
Can never die?

Why fear? Why worry?
Why care?
When life goes on forever
The tedium of forever
Making each day and night
No different from the rest
Of an unending
Eternity.

If we could live forever
What would we do
Today
That we couldn't do
Tomorrow?

Why bother?
Today
Why bother?
Tomorrow
What's the difference
After all, when you take away
The immediacy of death?

Death is the immortal savior that
Raises life to its most satisfying heights
Drives us to great deeds
To deep relationships
And profound experience
That otherwise would be so

Blasé.

~ Laurence Overmire