Death is Broken

Death is Broken

Life is broken because 

People are broken because 

Society is broken because 

Culture is broken because 

Death is broken

When death breaks it betrays the living, especially the dying 

And when death breaks, we’re all dying - but not to fix it

For as we clap for those who nurse us

As we weigh down the pockets of surgeons with silver 

As we pray and pray at bedsides and altars

And trust in science like a god

Trust it, trust it so hard it hurts our knees,

And as we walk and work in time 

Oppressed and blind

Consumed by insatiable desire 

Consumed by denial

Watching the fire, tending to it, adding wood 

And passive, gazing and

Learning nothing of its message,

And as our eyes are disallowed to fall 

Upon what lays ahead

Not on graphs or poetry

Not on holy texts

Not in the morgues or theatres 

The black curtained salons 

Not at the grave’s edge

Not in ash nor dust,

As we won’t look -

We must endure a life as living dead, a death cult: 

Or that which seeks eternal life

Because we won’t look

We do not live, we cannot live

We’re paralysed, morbid

And yet still won’t look

Fear triumphant rules no living soul 

For as sure as death is broken

Life must surely end.

Graeme Walker, 2020