Wake-Up Call

The other day I ran into
Someone I know not well,
And when I asked how life has been
She said, “A living hell.”

Her husband, in the hospital,
Had weird hallucinations;
His brain was quite a mystery,
Despite evaluations.

Her life had changed most drastically
And she’d been unprepared;
So now she had to do alone
The things that they had shared.

“I’m canceling a tour we’d planned,”
She said, sounding resigned.
“And when I come to visit him,
I don’t know what I’ll find.”

I felt so bad for her and had
No words to quite console.
When life throws darts like this at us,
It’s out of our control.

Her story, sad as it could be,
I’ve heard in other versions.
Its message should be strong enough
To foster mass conversions.

For those of us who pass the time
As if we’ll live forever,
Should realize in a flash
It’s time to plan our next endeavor.

We never know when, in a blink,
Our light may start to dim,
And suddenly the future
Can revert from glam to grim.

My meeting shook me up a bit,
So screw procrastination:
It’s time for me to sit right down
And book my next vacation.