Death By Beauty

When I was seventeen
I began to dream
Of a beauty so deep and so pure
That it would transcend my being.

And so I began to search
For the perfect chord,
The perfect color,
The perfect face.

To find it would be
The end of need
And pain
And desire in me.

Now I'm thirty-five and
Last week I realized
That this experience is called
Death.

And I am no longer afraid to die
But somehow still afraid to live.