Forever

You know you will stop
While everyone else
Goes on a little

Longer. In your head,
However, you can’t
Stop fantasizing

That everyone else,
Or most everyone,
Goes quiet, while you

Linger. No stories,
No news, no extreme
Juxtapositions

Of the trivial,
Profound, and awful,
Of war and gossip,

Of atrocities
And celebrities,
Just prolonged quiet,

And you to witness
But not testify,
At peace in the woods.

The core perverseness
Of humanity,
Wanting to persist

In a world of change,
Wanting change reversed,
Persists as you perish,

As you surrender
While imagining
Your own forever.