Withdrawal Symptoms

Poor Kierkegaard. He couldn’t think
Of a predator scarier

Than eternal oblivion.
Oblivion would render life

Empty and hopeless. Well, starting
With all the lives theology

Of some Christian varieties
State get only oblivion,

How empty and hopeless puppies,
Kittens, eagles, whales, or cedars?

A forest might not look cheerful,
But empty and hopeless to trees?

Dream oblivion before hell,
You poor thing. Dream oblivion

Before endless torture, before
Even the open-ended mill

Grinding out reincarnations.
What is it with souls, anyway?

Come from nothing. Anticipate
Returning to nothing. Panic

And invent all sorts of horrors
Alternative to nothingness.

You know what’s going on with this.
People can’t be made to behave

As people desire each other
To behave. Nothing offers blank

Afterlives on which to inscribe
Fierce threats and hazy promises,

Postscripts to fear and to hope for,
Cravings to alter behavior,

And at some point, oblivion
Threatens withdrawal symptoms.

The beauty of oblivion—
No withdrawal or addiction.