Evanescence

Why must it be that nothing ever lasts and Joy,
so near - so soon - bitter sorrow conveys?
Love's magic is short-lived, we hardly enjoy
Its bliss - It never stays!

Hollow is glory - youth ends in a day.
Untrustworthy is fame.
Brief like a flower beauty withers away.
Hope - an ephemeral flame!

Grief and despair - always trying to last!
Life is but a sleeping vision.
And when we dream a hundred years do pass,
Any skilled theoretician,

Will detect that what looked in the dream
Like a century was
Only an instant within Time’s fickle scheme
That deceptively tricked us.

And all the superstructures we have built:
Our misfortunes and cheer.
The goals we achieved - the guilt.
The joys and the heart-breaking tears.

Our delights and distress, all the anguish expressed,
The loves for which we pined,
All of them were fugitive dreams reflected
Upon the pitiless evanescence of time.

And what remains after all is said and done,
With all their flaws and excellence,
Is the unique and puzzling paragon
Of a majestic Silence....
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