"ABC"

Any body can die, evidently. Few
Go happily, irradiating joy,

Knowledge, love. Many
Need oblivion, painkillers,
Quickest respite.

Sweet time unafflicted,
Various world:

X=your zenith.


This poem is from Selected Poems by Robert Pinsky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011) and is reprinted here with the author's kind permission. Typography from  Drop Cap by Jessica Hische. 

Read more poems here.