The Price

I am an average man.
A normal man.
I have a Tiger in my being.
I will die like other men
with a calm face
and roaring in my silence.
I belong to dust.
I forfeited eternity for time,
for laughter,
for the topaz of a woman’s smile.
Irony will bury me.
To wake up and ring a bell.
To see how huge everything is
on the other side of sleep,
how beautiful
the fingernails of existence,
its touching tenderness.
A gift from Providence
holding me at night,
in its arms,
weeping at the cost
of giving me my life.