Lifetime Guarantee

There's a crack in the bricks.

A space created between
supporting concrete,
where spiders and other
delicious pestilence will
pass through to your sterile bedroom.

The patented mortar fell short  --
"but it was guaranteed
for a lifetime!"

You fell for it.

Of course, you know that a lifetime
didn't mean forever, don't you?
You know you can't take it with you?
There are no guarantees or lifetimes
in the eternity you're sure that your soul will float off to
and that mortar doesn't care what a lifetime
means to you.

Still, we like those kinds of words;
the ones that anchor us
to things we think
are too heavy,
too strong,
too important
to crack
or fail;
to die
and rot.
Like earth and concrete
and the stuff that
glues it all together.

It's not false advertising, you know;
they meant what they said.
At the end of your life,
there will be no need
to shop for mortar.

Guaranteed.