to acknowledge life

A special thanks to LiZa for the inspiration and the reminder of the remainder of the sum of my experience is yet to be imagined, very well lived.

you can live on your knees
or die on your feet
but the story isn't complete
as life is an incurable disease
and sooner or later, we all fall.

it's easy to fall. to haul
our battered carcasses to the edge
and hurl them off the impossible ledge
high atop the self-made palace wall
of the temple of our own best intents.

cowards touch knee to the cool stone
every day, surrendering to the pain and stain
because it is easier that way, to remain
curled in our fatalistic fetal position.
rise. rise. rise to acknowledge life.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.