“He was not supposed to die!”
Said Faith and Joanie when
Phil and Mac died unexpectedly
While still vigorous and young.

Our years are three score years
and ten, and if by some reason
they be fourscore years, yet are
their days labor and sorrow,

said the old sage on bended
knee, lamenting the inscrutable
puzzle of life and death beyond
the ordering of moral reason.

But I have days to live and time
enough for joy as well as toil,
for beauty as well as sorrow
before I’m not supposed to die.

Gordon C. Stewart, Georgetown Lake, MT, July 7, 2015.