THE DASH

We are born into the screaming world
crying that our desires be met
our hope someday will be fulfilled
and our fears quelled in love.
We all pass from this life is certain;
asleep in a dreamless peace in the night,
amid the alarms of a hospital's arena
or the massive pileup on the freeway's mess
all find an exit in some fashion and day.
Birth is a blessed gift from our Creator,
and death regardless our ultimate end;
yet it is the dash between the headstone dates
the opportunities seized upon or dismissed,
the multitude of consequences endured
from the myriad of choices diverged
that make our journey an individual one.
I on the one hand have been blessed
beyond measure of rank in stature
to experience this realm with love
abounding from even the briefest of
park bench smiles to the
life-long hand-held to the last.
Not the dates but the dash matters most
in this thing we call LIFE.

~ David De Lane Snow