The End of the Thing

A wise man, called the wisest man on earth, in fact,
once opined in his book that something's end is better
than its start. I would agree, up to a point, because
the final stroke of paint upon a canvas or the final piece
of wood set into place, the moment on the last page
of a book when all questions have been answered,
even when I press the "publish" button having written
one more poem for this blog, that sense of having done
the deed, achieved the goal, completed one more task,
accomplished what you set out long ago or recently: it's
grand! Turn in the paper, finish project, build the treehouse,
mow the yard, hang up the curtains you have sewn,
the end is filled with good things, hopefully, and so
the wise man had it right. But what of other things,
the end of journey that has been such fun throughout
the way, end of a life that blessed each one it touched,
end of the best and last love one could ever dream of?
I cannot see that these ends are or would be better
than the day that they began. There must be ends to
everything, it is the way of earth and man, but
focusing on joy of life and love, no worries about
endings of those sorts, that's more my style, while
gladly celebrating end of lesser things like hours of work
and plans and programs, jobs and occupations and
the hopelessness you used to have but don't have any more.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013