Afterlife
Why aspire to an afterlife free from the body
Or any truth beyond this world so weary?
Imbued with a logic that kindness calls “shoddy”
Bereft of formal philosophical theory
The seekers of their own spirit’s continuation
Reject the need for any scientific explanation
A multitude of faiths express similar ideas
Though with many a-notable variation
Perhaps to play upon popular fears
Or to generate greater or lesser elation
Believers looking forward to life’s termination
And, at worst, to dissenters’ extermination
Paradoxically they give thanks for their own survival
When natural disaster strikes their community
Even those who’ve discovered new faith by “revival”
Use religion to explain their own immunity
Those good people, dead and injured, were somehow selected
By their “maker” to be slaughtered or by virus infected
Let none of these thoughts be as nihilistic known
Though they deny much that a majority holds dear
Rather, grant these rantings a realistic tone
Against received wisdom that is totally unclear
We’d all love to believe in our own eternity
If liberated from age’s pain and infirmity
Yet all this gives no answer to the question
That has troubled our species down dreadful ages
The subject of so much religious reflection
That allowed sandwich boards to specify sin’s wages
Let’s accept it: after death there is nothing more
Than the memories and genes that have gone before
Give us the grace to focus on this life
And give support to our fellow creatures
Let’s struggle to eliminate unnecessary strife
- One of humanity’s most futile features
Our lives should leave to the young a better place
Than that to which we first showed our face