Somewhere between life and death

We all fit in there somewhere, don't we?

Few of us ever know which end we're closest to... And it never becomes more clear than when someone we know or care about seems far closer to the end than we'd like.

At which point we're forced to look the kind, dark stranger straight in the eye, try to recall the exact words of Dylan Thomas, then give up and say quietly, "Please wait for a bit, won't you?"

There's so much bargaining in place.

For me, it's a means of spending karma. I don't know if I'm technically spending it, but despite my trivial whingings about publishing my work (or writing new things), I tend to spend my karma on other things. Mostly in keeping loved ones alive.

I fear becoming in debt. Of overusing my karma credit card.

And it's far more likely that I'm simply deluding myself. But for now, I can ask only the stranger who holds our fragile fates to please hold off.

It's futile, I know. We all die. We are born, we live. We chuckle, we cry ourselves to sleep. And at the end of the day, we die. Those are the rules.

But sometimes it's simply a matter of hoping it will happen to someone else... and not those you love.

Not yet, anyway.