Life Is About Decay,

decline is the measure of life,
the slower the better for those
who fear is how steep and slippery
their descent might become.
And where it might land them.

The saints survive through
the recall of the miracles
credited to them, where they
briefly leveled the slippery slopes
of other peoples lives,
as written up in hagiographies.

Medical science has replaced those saints,
because we like our miracles to be predictable.
Slowing decay down to where we deceive ourselves
as to it's progress is as near as we get
to our preferred illusion of perpetual motion.