My husband told me today our lives are like milkshakes half gone

Maybe just the milk at the bottom

It’s startling

Like leaves coming off the trees in autumn

Is winter on the horizon

Our lives could be half over

Maybe even less, we don’t know

I’m not oblivious

But to work, to the beach, on the interstate I go

Is there any point in being so meticulous

I saw three names I know in the obituaries today

Too soon, I thought

What happens to the people in their wake

Was one intentional or were they all mistakes

Surely someone’s in charge

I hear the clock

My musings are at large

Even if I drift I come back repeatedly

There’s no rip tide that could detract me

From the belief that death’s not the end

Milkshakes fallen over, spilled, cold

I’m thrilled and sold

In all the mistakes and melting and slurping

In the glory and hurting

This life is just preparatory