Tomorrow never comes, they say,
And, even if it did, it'd be too late
To change the fates of us mere mortals.
The ceremonies of innocence continue
In this secular age: birth, marriage, death,
People's lives changing in a moment,
The bureaucracies of birth and death
'The Formalities' as some still say
Continue to this day: even the stillborn
Require a death certificate before burial.
And yet, death itself remains an obscenity
Referred to by euphemism in polite society
Nineteenth century MPs would be caught 
Reading sermons on eschatology, the last things,
Whilst in the twenty-first century errant MPs
Study tractors and pornography, too cowardly
To face the fact that the end of his world is nigh.