Don’t Stall

things rise despite hate and gravity,
even we rise, but through no power
not borrowed

everything is borrowed,
nothing’s owned

breath is borrowed, the same we see exhaled
billowing at threshold of condensation
watching vapor rise on warm drafts

last time our lungs respire proves
breath is borrowed

and thoughts? thoughts come unbidden from nowhere,
from no one or nothing pronounceable, and rise,
except those we grasp and claim exclusively to own
which fall having lost their buoyancy

our last thought proves
thought is too on loan

and body’s borrowed, every pleasure/pain
from ecstasy to mundane, alone or with all

our last beat of heart with thought proves
body’s borrowed, suddenly recalled

and time? every so-swift moment comes and goes,
each tock and tick, each blink, every rise and fall

time’s final instant proves
time is life’s most borrowed thing of all

don’t stall

Jim Culleny
12/6/2020