Helpless

Words fail
words falter
People fail
people falter

we drop our burdens
leave our job
half-done
racing ahead to
reach for the
golden ring
the promise
of a day
a week
a life off

death is
the ultimate
vacation
the only
real way
to escape our
duties and finally
irrevocably
relax.

we leave behind
others to pick up
our burdens
to finish our
jobs. perhaps
the only redeeming
quality of the human
race comes in that.
there will always be
someone to take up
the standard where
it was dropped in our
headlong dash to reach
the finish line.