I offer this paean in memory of the tragic death of Washington Redskin,  Sean Taylor.  I draw my inspiriration from the early 20th century elegiac poetry of A.E. Housman, specifically:  "an Athlete Dying Young." The introduction is a from T.S. Eliot's Wasteland- the Death by Water stanza.

         Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,

            Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swells,

                And the profit and the loss.

                                               
     A current under sea

picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell

                                      he passed the stages of his age and youth

                                           
  entering the whirlpool.

                                     Gentile or Jew

  O you who turn the wheel and look to windward

              Consider Phlebas, who once was handsome

                                           
  and tall as you.

The time you won your team the game

    We cheered you on, and showered fame

 Upon you.  We held you up as though a rock

 Star.  We knew not the time remaining on the clock.

 To-day the path of thugs and gangstas

 Ends where yours ends, we feel the pangs

Of loss and grief but wonder how you

Waste such strength and skill and now you

Break our hearts and leave us puzzled

At least Michael Vick survived and muzzled

Has another shot at glory or another

Day to see the light, your journey other

Places wends, unknown, uncertain

You disappear behind the curtain of

Eternity.

A once bright flame extinguished.

Once strong and fast and so distinguished

From the ordinary mortal: God's gifts

Were surely meant to lift

Us closer to him and to truth.

But alas, you have been brought low by brutes.

Perhaps you felt beyond their sting

Your bravado and your bling

No match for a thuggish glock.

Your demise, like that of Tupac

Steals from our joy.

Sleep well and teach the boys

Of Autumn how cold the ground

Where star-crossed lives become unwound.

Ralph Alter