Searching for a place to die

In my nine lives as a cat

I searched for a place

Where no sleeping dogs lie

 I searched for a place so I could die

 

In my sorrow as a dog

(For I always feared a dog’s death)

I searched heaven and earth for mercy

 And got none instead

 

When I was that beautiful leaf

My beauty lasted but for a day

For then I wilted and died

And the breeze blew me away

 

As a man in places so far and away

 I went to the northern skies

And countries that have no dawning day

I went to mountains high and mighty

And to rivers and oceans deep

Just to find some place

Where I could find that eternal sleep

 

Death never came

Stubborn as she is

She remained unseen

And immensely missed

 

I came back home

And then she came

Perched on a stone

He picked it up and let it fly

He was my own son

 

I laughed with a sardonic smile

As to why when I couldn’t die

Where men can’t live

Why such a sad death given was I?