playing parts

we are created
nothing more than
dust and breath
and all we have
to show for this
great gift is lust
and death

and any good
in us is given
mercy folds
our hearts
and takes
the merest exaltation
and delivers
greater parts

the little demons
that define
the way we live
upon this earth
the parts that take
and never thank
or recognize that
being born
means giving birth

to yet another line
in time
and drawn among
the sand of stars
we travel far among
and distant from
the lives we dare
call ours