Leaving This World Poem by Kurt Philip Behm

I've looked and watched
you turn away

Seeing things
you've long denied

I grabbed the lion
by his mane

Staring through
the devil's eye

I bought
a one-way ticket

While never
looking back

I've sailed and searched
the roughest seas

My rigging
often slack

I gave away
all that I had

And asked for
nothing more

I played the game
and damned the rules

Rejecting
any score

I stole my fate back
from the wind

Which blew
from side to side

And asking once
my only wish...

—to leave this world alive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July,2018)