Martyrs, gunmen, angry wives,
desperate husbands, and fugitives
snap their lives with guns and knives,
lions and visions, jolts and jars,
poison, plunges, and gas from cars.
They set their hearts on seeing stars
and they see stars. Through every haze
that's in them all their nights and days
they get to see the whole sky blaze
that once. Just once. But once will do.
Finalities are not to chew.
The damned get one gulp. Then they're through.
We couldn't praise them, you and I.
Still, we note as they plunge by
they do stick to the point. That's why
we half admire them.—I confess
I do. Whatever their distress
they leave with something to express.
We don't die: we just digress.
(1966)