The Final Bell Poem by Mustafa Marconi

Mentally exhausted, emotionally spent
I look around in relative amazement
And repeatedly question in utter disbelief
Where the hell has every hour, every minute, and every second went
As The final bell tolls for our patriarch
And the spirit ascends into another state
My trepidations begins to dissipate
And I can now come to embrace my mortality
In his final physical act, his final curtain call
He has once again showed us the way
Choosing to transcend this world under his terms
Defiant and uncompromising
The rivers of eternal life has taken him from us
And now only the memories remain
Vivid portraits embedded deep inside my soul
Images of strength and character
Of pride and perseverance
Images of a man who woke up every day
With the cards stacked against him
Forced to declared personal war
In opposition to the imbalanced and discriminatory scales of life
He forged ahead beaten but never defeated
Frustrated but never discouraged
Impeded but never unproductive
Infuriated but never bitter
A flawed human being with crippling vices
Who overcame each and every obstacle he encountered
As he cheated life out of hundreds of millions of precious seconds
Choosing to transcend this world
Under his own defiant and uncompromising terms