Ultimate Questions

It seems my friends and I are falling apart and in constant need of repair.

Today my brother is having some extremely uncomfortable surgery.

Tomorrow my close friend is having a heart cath.

They're both going to be fine but it is reminding me today of how fragile life is.

In 1922 Carl Sandburg wrote one of my favorite poems. He asks a long sighted question and gets a short sighted answer.

Omaha

I am riding on a limited express,
one of the crack trains of the nation.

Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go
fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.

(all the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing shall pass to ashes,)

I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he answers

"Omaha."


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