This Life I’m Leaving

by Max Layton

I love this life I’m leaving
That’s the trochee long and short of it
The iambic short and long of it
Though measureless my grieving

I salute spring’s muddy best
This host of dactyl daffodils
Though darling buds of May may bless
Mosquitoes and other anapests

Enough! No pun is worth
My death; no joke can wake the dead
Some spring the earth’s rebirth
Will mud my grinning head

I love winter, summer, fall
But April is the cruelest love of all