Yes, death is a fact of life,
but as I put up the memorial
web page for departed
high school classmates
prior to our 40th reunion,
it's a mystery where
they can have gone.
I just learned
about the demise
of half of them.
They seemed fine until then.
I didn't see any of them expire.
I only visited one in the hospital,
and that was way back
in our junior year.
As I look at their yearbook pictures,
something about them still jangles
like money in their pockets.
Laughter still sings
from the faces
of a few who were jokers.
One girl's still being dramatic.
There's a place where
my high school lives
just as it was forty years ago,
these people
still walking its halls.
Max Reif
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/yes-death-is-a-fact-of-life/
