A vast hospital of anguish

(John MacDuff, "The Dirge of Creation")

"Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh."
    2 Cor. 5:4

The wailing lamentation has been voiced for six
millenniums: "Naked I came from my mother's
womb, and naked I will depart."  Job 1:21

Everywhere we see . . .
  the suffering of sick beds,
  the agony of bereavement,
  the sudden close of lives of promise,
  human ties formed only to be sundered,
  births superseded by deaths,
  marriage chimes followed by the funeral bell.

Yes, say as we will; this world, while a home
of beauty, the vestibule of heaven; may be
described, with equal truth, as a vast hospital of
anguish; a cemetery and receptacle for the dead!

"He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and
 change them into glorious bodies like His own."
    Phil. 3:21