Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless hesitating, noncommittal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.
—Elements of Style, Strunk & White
It would be less preferred
to say of the baby quail
that “It did not survive”
when the falcon
went hunting
along the side of the cliff.
Better, say the experts,
to make definite assertions,
“It died.”
It’s rule twelve:
“Put statements
in positive form.”
But what to say
of the inner fight,
how the soul cheers
for the falcon in flight—
all grace and ferocity,
precision, might.
While the heart
can’t help but cheer
for that bumbling chick
brown-striped, blameless,
chirp and slip.
It’s not that the heart
is trying to evade,
not trying to lie,
it just wants
to build a small hope
for us all with the word survive
something to soften the truth—
all things die.