Poem: Last Sunset?

I sat and watched a sunset, the red and orange

And pink and… It covered me. It hurt my eyes.

I think I even enjoyed it, despite the blindness.

But it occurred to me; what if this were my last one?

I worried about whether it was the best I’d ever seen.

I worried about missing out on better.

I worried about worrying about sunsets

Because weren’t sunrises just as important?

So I vowed to see each one right at its conception.

I set my alarm and stumbled from my warm bed

Just to see the sun turning up for a day’s work.

Just to see the day turning on.

And then I’d wait all day to see it turning off again.

And I thought, it’s just a giant light switch and I was

Getting tired and bored and wondering who stares at a light?

Each time it wasn’t my last I became a little less

Interested.

The sun set and it rose and I was still here.

The sun set and it rose and I wasn’t dead.

So I stopped setting the alarm, and I stopped watching

The sun do its thing. Because it was going to do it

Whether I saw or not. Maybe that’s the thing I was

Supposed to realise. In the end it doesn’t matter

If you see the sunrise for the last time,

If you see the sun set no more – you’ll never know.

ãLisamarie Lamb 2014