Suffering is not a thing

belonging out there,

but encroaching

increasingly

where it should

not be, no.

It is.

It is in the wondering

and the waiting for words which

will wound no matter

how softly they are spoken.

It is in the scream of a wildebeest

as a lion tears mortally into its flesh.

It is in the million year death of a star

and in the unrequited song of the cicada.

It is in the knowledge, growing louder,

that there will be a last breath,

a final light.

It is.

That it is.

Ehyeh asher ehyeh

אהיה אשר אהיה