Refusal to Fade

Too often men fade,

Day after day graying,

Decaying away.

Long will Death wait,

Till the soul suffocates,

Till the struggle abates,

And then will he swallow us whole.

Let me not be like those men.

Let me be like the leaves mid-autumn,

Not to, graying, fade,

Not by Death’s menace swayed,

But flaming, let me fall.

Let me pass away

With still the struggle, still the gall,

To ignite, to burn red, defiant to the end,

Though surely Death’s cruel will

My mortal soul shall never bend.