Fearsome Friend

Death has always haunted me, that endless

Calling of eternity that pounded

So suddenly on my door; you see death

Comes in countless forms, but nearly always

 Like a thief, lurking unexpectedly

Few beckon for death who have seen her face

For to me she spoke of nothing but pain

Death does not usher softly to the door

Nor was she to me a kind host to all

 That lies beyond, rather the grotesque

 Offspring, the spawn of a cruel, twisted world

Death in her thousand forms frightened me

Suddenly leering over my shoulder

All white sterility and solitude

A nose pressed to cold glass, a needle pressed

 To skin, till death seemed almost a comfort

To all but me, who would not look on her

 As a friend, but an enemy, a blight

To all I held dear, in the mirror she

Stared back at me with cold eyes, unlike the

Eyes of those around me, wherein joy shone

 Even as life drained, perhaps I was wrong to

 Fear death so adamantly, perhaps

 She remains an usher not to the grave

But beyond it, to a life more real than

Death itself; while deaths forms may be ugly

The hand she extends when the clock has struck

Now holds the promise of One waiting with

Open arms for the one I nearly had

 To release. We evaded death that day

But she has come again, in different

Guise, this time to be greeted as a friend

Leading us beyond to what lies ahead