That You Ever Could Have Been and Yet You Were and Are

Life is very sad, if you consider it alone,
By which employment of our friend, alone, we don’t mean
That life is very sad when you are alone, but that
Any life considered only in terms of itself—
Where you were years ago, how things are now, where to next—
A smallness ballooning in lack of context, a skull
Exposed to the void, is very sad indeed. But life
Shapes up considerably, compared with larger worlds,
The larger the better, we suggest, your family
Putting your life in perspective a bit, your people
More so, fellow humanity still more ennobling
Of the fleeting, attractive littleness that’s been you,
And in view of the whole night sky, how astonishing