A reflective monologue on free will and the philosophical and existential dilemma between success and failure; hope and despair; and life and death.

————

Between life and death, I employ

my nobler reason for being here

despite my heart's most meager joy;

can discord's ire uproot what's near

my ambushed soul's bliss and destroy

my furtive hopes that are so dear?

I, a mild man who lives in hope,

seek salvation from death and strife;

and struggle valiantly to cope

and thrive (as if my looked-for life's

beyond departing from the scope

of the edge of the Reaper's scythe).

It'd be more easy to just die,

than to live, flourish,—and so give

myself the gift of soaring high!

I engineer and thus contrive,

than just let triumph pass me by

without a fair chance to survive.

By Ngoc Nguyen

From: United States

Website: https://www.poetbay.com/poetHome.php?writerId=6282