Classic Poem

Death alone
has sympathy for weariness:
understanding
of the ways
of mathematics:
of the struggle
against giving up what was given:
the plus one minus one
of nitrogen for oxygen,
and the unequal odds:
you a cell
in the universe,
a breath or two
against all time.
Death alone
takes what is left
without protest, criticism
or a demand for more
than one can give
who can give
no more than was given:
doesn't even ask
but accepts it as it is,
without examination,
valuation,
or comparison.