Yes

By David Brooks

You know how
just before we die
our whole life is supposed
to flash before our eyes?
Well, should that happen, we’d surely have,
while it is flashing,
to come to that moment when our whole life
flashes before our eyes,
and while that was happening
all over again, we’d come again
to that same moment, and so on,
which is only to say that, while I know
this might not have been good enough for Zeno
and that it’s a certainty
that death happens anyway, for that one
minute, when that thought came
and I imagined
living this life
over and over,
I said to myself, despite
all the effort, all the
pain of it,
despite
all that has happened
and is likely to
again and again,
Yes, I thought, as I was watching you
getting ready for bed tonight,
Yes, though I knew
even then
it was crazy beyond measure,
Yes, I would, Yes,
Please, Yes.

This Poem Features In: