Nothing but two dates

Why cling to life if it’s such a hassle?
You have to take care of all the daily necessities
just to keep your body in shape, let alone your boredom-prone mind.
And then there is everything you crave—and often feel entitled to
as a creature of scripture—and what’s expected of you.
But whether you are Anton de Franckenpoint or Richebourg,
or the triumphant general in his quadriga or the auriga whispering in his ear,
you can count on nothing but two dates and perhaps a commemorative inscription
on your tombstone. Why then?

I doubt my parents asked that question that night, but five decades later,
I’m still looking for the answer.

All the things that make me

I am the resultant of all minor and major ailments, injuries, and diseases that have befallen me.
My life consists of all the books I have read or at least hoped to get my hands on, all the places
I have been or refused to go, every word spoken and left unsaid, and many more. But in the end,
nothing of this will reach a graveyard except the name and two random dates. I am an engraver
preparing my tombstone.

The facts of life

I have always liked phone books, but no one makes them any more. They were like bare graveyards
where each tombstone provided the necessary facts of life, only in their case, they were supposedly
about the living. I remember trying to convince myself that everyone there was waiting for me, even
if they were not, which was a fact of life of a sort, but I still tried to find an excuse for being naive.
I thought: if the world around me does not exist for me, what is the point? It hurt, but I kept telling
myself that it was going to be easier when I grew up. Now I am grown up, and it hurts even more.
And on that note, it is time for dinner. Like it or not, the body needs fuel more than anything else.
This is the ultimate fact of life.