THISISJOHN

Hello, beautiful flower
You blossom and shine
Your very first time
Not yet jaded
By winter's cold touch

You will learn to hurt
And to die
And to reemerge from the earth
New and remade
And show off heaven's glory

You will know the cycle
Just like the rest of us
To rise from the ashes
And to fall back into them
To live is to be tortured

Old age is never kind to us
For it is only evidence
Of how many years we have died
And not how many we have lived
Ascend and crumble, like civilization.