Here's a fact: Some people want to live more than others do. Some can withstand any horror while others will easily surrender to thirst, hunger, and extremes of weather. In Utah, one man carried another man on his back like a conjoined brother and crossed twenty-five miles of desert to safety. Can you imagine the hurt? Do you think you could be that strong? Yes, yes, you sing, but you're probably wrong.
Is it John Lennon who sings, "Life is what happens when we're making other plans"?
My poem is, of course, about a larger sense of survival but it's in particular a poem about surviving extreme physical hardship. I've had a bad back since my late 20s. I could never carry somebody that many miles.