Graduation Day

Once there was a time
when a man could outgrow the child
at the age of thirteen
a rite of passage would set him free
then they said
he's too young, alone to tread
the path of life
to raise wife and child
so they said when he wasn't listening
You won't be capable until you are sixteen
When two times eight arrived
almost too late they realised
he had not learned enough to really handle life
18 was still a teen
and by 21 what had he really seen
when you reach your quarter century
we'll test you to see if by then you just might be
free of all your childish insecurity
35 would come and pass
and see him still in class
confused unclear
of just exactly where
his best interests would be
and when the rules would set him free
at 40 now when life begins
he understands some vital things
to live means to cease to pray
to truly seize the day
to give means to cease to prey
move from putty into hardened clay
there is no predetermined time or day
or wise elders who can rightly say
who or what or when or why
just as none can know the length of life
So I choose to LIVE by a code that's mine
any other road is to choose to die
for death can breathe and run and fly
and still, you know you're dead by the pain of why
for life without a purpose of my own
is an empty cage, the bird has flown
I don't know what the end may be
and so I'll choose it before it chooses me
there's no life exam no predetermined fate
I will be free of others rules today
today I graduate. - TCoD