My Pompeii

As the ash falls and lays

I think back on my childhood days

how we'd laugh and play

in bushes, trees, and far off glades.

I think on my adult ways, how I'd drink and play

and found a wife with which to lay.

With whom I chose to stay

until our children went away

until my wife had passed away

So here, despite the dismay

I'll lay

under the sun, under the ash, on the clay.

On this final day

in my Pompeii.