A challenge of challenges,
A fight to survive,
An unwanted adventure,
Just to stay alive.

When death did come,
To knock on his door,
The man did not run,
He stared Death straight into his unearthly core.

Death came around,
And stood at the foot of the man’s bed,
Then Death said gently,
As he put a hand to his head:

“Your time has come,
and now you see,
you must follow me to Hell,
and all of it’s misery.
You may not decline,
And you may not postpone,”
Death became darker,
The man felt a chill in his bones.

He looked up to Death,
He felt his eyes dance,
Then he whispered quietly,
“If I could please sir, have another chance?”

“A chance?” Death asked,
his lips formed a scowl,
he glared at the man,
and the wind began to howl.

“You, my sir,
are quite the fool,
you can not cheat Death,
it is a well-known rule.




Now come with me,
And together we shall fly,
Damned to Hell are we,
You may kiss your precious life goodbye.”

Death grabbed the man’s wrists,
His nails, each sharp as a knife,
But the man would not give in,
He held tightly to his life.

Death stepped back,
As he failed to understand,
No one had ever resisted,
The touch of his hand.

Death took his leave,
In a mass of fire and doom,
In a swirl of darkness and fear,
He left the man’s room.




The man clasped his bed,
And opened his eyes,
Death was gone,
But his chill was left behind.

The man let go,
The answer fell on him like rain,
He was given a chance to improve his life,
But he would do it in pain.

The man left his bed,
And bowed his head to pray,
He vowed to make a change,
After all, today was his last day.

He slipped on some clothes,
And began the start of his day,
He walked through the door,
And into the rain.




He gave his umbrella to a girl,
Donated his watch to a nun,
Bought a loaf of bread for a boy,
Smiled at most everyone.

He called up some old friends,
He called up his mother,
He called up the prison,
To see if he could visit his brother.

He went to work,
And did what used to be absurd,
He gave everyone a vacation,
Something they all very much deserved.

The man spent his day,
Filling others with happiness and joy,
He felt so good inside,
He hadn’t felt this way since he was a boy.




The day went on,
The sun soon fell,
The man went home,
Feeling all happy and swell.

Then that night,
As the darkness did creep,
The man left the Earth,
He died peacefully in his sleep.

Now, there is no need to fret,
And there is no need to frown,
The man did not go to Hell,
In fact, it was the other way around.

A challenge of challenges,
A fight to survive,
An unwanted adventure,
Just to stay alive.




The man did succeed,
His soul did advance,
Sometimes all we humans need,
Is a single, second chance.