James Gale

You don’t have to build a legacy
Or leave your mark on this place.
Though it feels unsettling,
You too will be forgotten,
Your whole existence simply erased.

Sooner than later,
No one will remember
Your charming face
Or the insufferable challenges
You conquered every day.

Yet in the same way,
Your embarrassments will leave no trace,
And no one will think twice
About any of your mistakes.

Time is present, neither friend nor foe,
A concept that’s almost aloof to our grace.
We are just a minuscule grain of sand
On a beach stretching in infinite ways.

There is an overwhelming pressure
To make something of every day,
As our time is limited,
And our consciousness fears
Whenever we delay.

And so indeed, dying is terrifying,
The greatest of our unknowns,
Perhaps it’s nothing but an endless void,
Erasing all existence of a once living soul.

Yet in that silence, there could be freedom,
A release from life’s demanding chase.
For even in our absence,
Time will continue at its mysterious pace.

So what if we changed the story,
Even just for one meaningless day?
What if we just lay here
And come what may?