It's All About The Dash

Each marker has two dates, two years
Etched deep into the stone or molded onto the bronze.
Two dates determined by God
Before we were ever conceived.

Separating those dates is a single dash,
A single seemingly insignificant line.
It's the simplest smallest mark on the marker
And, ordinarily, I wouldn't give it another thought.

So simple, yet so significant and perhaps the
Most important part of the whole thing.
It represents the time we spent on this earth,
This little dash we rarely give a second glance.

We're born and then we'll die,
It's the ultimate consequence in this existence.
It's all about what we do between those dates,
What we do with the time between those years.

It's the whos, the whats, the wheres,
The hows and the whys and the whens.
It's everything we were for the while we're here.
Our entire lives, and it's all in just a little dash.