Where is Your Sting?

I returned from a truly amazing two-week vacation on Monday, and immediately developed a severe allergic reaction to a lovely pollen bloom and acquired the stomach bug. I am thankful that I didn't get either of those while I was actually on vacation. During the time my wife and I were gone, we suffered the loss of a friend who was like family to my wife that she had just seen days before our trip. It was an odd experience to be at the "Happiest Place on Earth" and hear of his passing, but I won't go into that for now. Suffering. Sickness. Death. All part of life, right?

Anyway, since returning I have learned that more friends have lost friends and in-laws have lost family members in the past few days and it reminded me of something I wrote down in my journal after my Aunt Carole died unexpectedly in 2015. I have not shared it before, but maybe it's time. I don't know. Here goes  - but first a caution that it contains some graphic literary content:

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Death won't win, but it blackens my eye
        from time
                       to time
Accumulating blows - beating heart
beaten by hearts no longer beating
        from time
                       to time
Let my bruises heal before the next
delivery, will ya?
Death, I can't wait to see your kicked in teeth,
your brains on the street,
your hollow eyes and pale withered skin.
                     Death, you lose.

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