A somewhat cynical yet possibly hopeful poem by my alter ego, Vilém Více, who lives in Prague, one of my favorite cities in the world.

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Most agree that faith is a great solace

Through loss and grief it sure does console us

But let me say this about the “God” thing

If you do not believe that angels sing

And that the Lord’s wondrous glories await

Upon your arrival at heaven’s gate

I have this one sure fail-safe solution

Simply embrace the whole grand delusion

Deceive yourself and bamboozle your mind

That in your death you will actually find

All that religious stuff they say is true

That in an afterlife God will imbue

Enlightenment on you beyond belief

Glory be, wouldn’t that be blessed relief!

But if it ain’t so and it’s all a fraud

There ain’t no heaven and there ain’t no Lord

You will not know the difference anyway

At the moment of your dreaded doomsday

You’ll be in oblivion nothing known

Dead body and mind and vanishing bone.

So this is the conclusion I contend

It is of little import in the end

Whether you do or do not believe

So you might just as well self-deceive

It will banish those scary deathbed blues

I mean, what the hell have you got to lose?

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Photo: Vilém Více (foreground) in Prague.

🔝

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