John Updike - Requiem

It came to me the other day:
Were you to die, no one would say,
"Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise - depths unplumbable!"
Instead a shrug an tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise!
The wide response will be, I know,
"I thought he died a while ago."
For life's a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Samstag, 31. Januar 2009 Nr 26 Seite 31