Life's Greatest Riddles

 From the very first,

How do we all begin?

Are we pure and good and wholesome

Or hiding dormant sin?

And the journey that we choose in Life,

That may follow the ‘road less traveled’,

Is nothing in the end but Fate—

A mystery unraveled;

So we aspire to be the learned scholar,

Perhaps a hidden foil;

For do we not lack the knowledge

Of the man who choose to toil?

And all the endless constraints,

That limit our boundless minds,

Do they diminish or grow stronger

With the ebbing flow of Time?

And with each new epiphany,

One finds a fresh new lease;

Yet aren’t we forever looking

For that one elusive piece?

So hours we ponder the inevitable—

How will it finally end?

Will we cross the finish line,

Or merely start over again?

Perhaps there is no reason

For all this battering about;

Do we ever truly know

What Life is all about?

Do we learn from our mistakes,

Or forever stumble anew?

Are the answers that we gallantly seek

Shared by the many or the few?

Perhaps there are some things

Of which we know are certain;

Key things we hope to cling to

Waiting for Life’s final curtain;

Empathy for things unknown,

And a purity of heart

Aren’t these but the rarest gifts

Of those who’ll soon depart?

Why yes, these are surely things

Which most of us possess;

But tell me where do the lonely go

In their time of great distress?

And towards the of Life,

We each make one final stand;

Is the mortal a true visionary—

Or the dreamer just a man?

Despair not—Love holds all the answers,

Or so we’ve all been told;

But will that make us completely whole

When we are feeble and quite old?

As so we continue to seek these truths,

Amidst the shifting sands of Time,

With only Life’s greatest riddles

For us to leave behind.

                                                                                             Jay Michael Perkins II