Where there's birth,
There's sure death,
No matter, old or youth,
This is a known truth.

The body only dies.
The soul ever lives
To take a new body
After the old body.

Thus the life cycle repeats
As the soul continues
To exist on this earth
Many a birth after death.

The soul too undergoes,
With the body consciousness,
Untold ills and miseries
When the body suffers.

From the petty body consciousness
To the highest God consciousness,
A shift to this great awareness
Binds the soul with eternal happiness.

One should lead the life,
Like the free lotus leaf
With the water not mixing,
But on its surface floating.

Better late than never,
Practice in mind ever,
'The body-detachment,
And the God-attachment.'

Rajaram Ramachandran

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/birth-and-death-cycle/