Advice

Don’t tamper with the story, child.
Let the world be what it is.
A pretty word or two won’t
Scrub the ugliness from it,
Nor will a clever turn of phrase
Make more sense of it than
It rightly owns.

The end is imminent for us all-
Our lives span but a single breath
Of an earth grown long in the tooth.
We live, and then we die.
And somewhere in between
Perhaps we make a tiny mark
To leave for those who will come next,
As if to say, Here it was that I once stood.

Pray the mark you leave is one
Of betterment, a small brightening at least -
The world is sore in need of light,
Engulfed as it is in fear,
These days as it ever was.
So whatever you choose to do,
Make it count, child.

Make it count.

-~-~-~

Three Word Wednesday prompt: engulf, imminent, tamper