Nature's Parables: Death Poem by Darrell Wright

'Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt'
(Virgil, Aeneid)

All living things fade quickly, and they die:
What is the meaning? Can we answer why?
The bird consumes a worm or scattered seed;
The day it cannot fly it will then feed
Some other creature; then it will return
To earth, enriching soil for plants in turn.
And so it is with plants and beasts -- and Man
As well -- yet he alone in nature can
Perceive the tragic beauty in it all --
Yet they see least who know not of their fall.