CESSATION

CESSATION That pain is like treading on bottle tops Or stumbling into some hidden caltrops Suddenly, as when some lightbulb pops The welcome relief when it finally stops Like making big gains on currency swaps The blood pressure and heartrate drops Yet is thought so typical of all milksops With a false sympathy everyone adopts Once ended, one hopes it never returns Not just pain, but embarrassment burns Yet that is only one of several concerns How to grin and bear it, one soon learns To hold your breath as the jury adjourns It is more a prize of resilience one earns But recall how much the stomach churns When it’s never over, if one so discerns Some sort of final line must be crossed Ideas of permanent pain must be tossed No wonder that one may then feel lost As if buried deep within the permafrost Like being frozen stiff without a riposte Or see one’s ongoing destiny embossed But with a better ending than a holocaust Just seeking cessation at almost any cost