I'm living in the breakdown years
and I find myself wondering
how I'm gonna go.

will I age gracefully
	like an old oak tree
or fall into shambles
	like an abandoned factory.

will I crumble like some ancient monument
	to better days long forgotten
or will I decay
	like a pile of mulch.

will I slide to the bottom of that long hill gradually
	like a toboggan running out of speed
or fall to earth in a flash
	like a satellite in fiery orbital decay.

will my veins encase and suffocate me
	like overgrown vines wrapped around
	a junk car in the woods
will my dna go haywire and change me into
	someone I no longer recognize.

will I lose my heart
will I lose my mind
will I lose my way
	on the way to the exit.

I'm still a lot more afraid of getting sick
	than I am of dying
I hate the idea of having to endure some protracted illness
	that eats me up
	beats me down
and leaves me hanging on to life
	like a broken door
	in a broken house
hanging from the last screw
	in its last hinge.

there's no shortage of horrible exit scenarios
	and given what a big deal it is
	and the fact that we only get to do it once
I think we oughta have some say in how it happens.

personally
I think being struck by lightning is the way to go
	bang
	zap
	kaput
	flash-fried
	instant gratification
	you're done
	you're dust
	you're outta here
but I understand that sort of thing
can be very hard to arrange.

(PDF version)

The breakdown years by Rick Belden, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.