A Life

Anyone can get a life,
Anyone can lose it,
But who will dare to inhabit the thing
And use it?
A lived-in life
Will soon get loose and worn
From use and feeling:
Countless tiny scratches,
The shine goes off,
It's very unappealing!
Dirt builds up,
A load of muck and grit;
A part of you gets lost:
A hope, a philosophy,
Or a love that doesn't fit.
Another broken sleep,
A dream collapses;
A quick repair, it's worth a try.
A scrap of string from the soul,
Perhaps a battered grin will fill the hole.
Or just a sigh.
Flakes and cracks!
A major idea buckles badly,
A makeshift support is put up quickly;
A tired old joke could hide the dint,
Or be a wedge or a patch or a splint,
Truly, sweetly, sadly.
And yet it works and lives!
It all still goes. It forgives.
It's a miracle!
Worn in, bashed in, cried in,
And the great thing—
A lived-in life can be happily died in.
—Michael Leunig