Saturday, January 31, 2009

John Updike 1932-2009


Requiem

It came to me the other day:

Were I to die, no one would say,

'Oh, what a shame! So young, so full

Of promise - depths unplumbable!

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes

Will great 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.


- John Updike

From the forthcoming collection "Endpoint"