Symphonic Ocean Ending

why hasn't anyone ever realized dying is the worst possible way
to end a life even if you're left handed or can't stand regimentation
OK perhaps they have and it just hasn't come up in conversation
and speaking of conversation what's up with poetry readings

should one read with feeling and what about musical accompaniment
instrumentation is always a question maybe a laid back flute and rhythm section
like the one in Coffee Cantata remember when a jazz flute was playing and sitting nearby was
Jacqueline Bisset as his girl Cathy so smart and steadfast but not without concern

and featuring the archetype of cool in his khaki raincoat and looking carefully around
was Frank Bullit who spoke softly and you knew inside he was completely on top
and how powerfully he thrust his long green Mustang through sunny San Francisco
forcing the very bad assassins in their hot black Charger into self immolation

but the assassins Killer and Phil were gangsters and always up to no good
and certainly not Vietnamese Buddhists kneeling in prayer on the streets of Saigon
no their slaughter was involuntary but just because they had caused a violent death earlier
and even though they almost botched it nothing good was going to come of them

on the other hand what about a chamber orchestra of about fifty instruments
a reading accompanied by a Beethoven sonata on a beach as a tide comes in
there would have to be moonlight and there would have to be a mild temperature
and a sea breeze would have to stir up a light surf but not chill the audience

one would be reading with one's back to the players and waves and the audience
would of course be enraptured by the Nietzschean synthesis of music and verse
but the waves would begin lapping with more and more excitement
at the feet of the orchestra as crescendos excited even ancient spirits of place

and the ensemble's discipline would be tested severely by danger
as swells swamped the spit valves of slide trombones
and the brass would began to gurgle as their instruments filled with sea water
especially French horns because their bells point down

but thankfully double bases could be called upon to serve as life boats
for woodwinds who are notoriously inept swimmers after dark
and even listeners would fear the consequences of the upwelling and take flight
stampeding toward nearby dunes and startling sandpipers on the beach

skittering around the edges of the congregation pecking at sand fleas
and as intelligent as sandpipers are known to be even they would be hard pressed to understand
what all the fuss was about among creatures often seen scampering and swimming in surf
and they would wonder why hominoids don't know that sooner or later everyone dies