On Equal Ground

By John I. Blair

I can buy my way
Into a hospital;
Money definitely talks.

But (so far at least) I cannot buy
My way to immortality;
Death’s the lot of all of us.

What I control,
What gives me hope,
Is how I look at life the while I live it,

Not tearfully, through fear-filled eyes,
But with the clear and certain gaze
Of one who knows that life and death,

Suffering and joy,
All exist on equal ground
With sun and water, wind, earth, stars.

©2010 John I. Blair