Ask Not Why You Reap Such Ills

Like a tight jar your fate is sealed
Life strains under its heavy goals.
After death, truth's light is revealed
Lying lips are kissed by burning coals.

Loud roars cry out life is so unfair
Beg pay for merely knowing your names.
You play, wandering around with no care
Ignoring follies and your great shames.

You walk along a dark, foreboding path
With cold fingers jammed in your ears.
Cry about hard times and imagined wrath
Run from shadows and your greatest fears.

Blue dark day may wait for your descent.
You reap ill because you did not repent!

Robert J. Lindley
1986