NaPM 15 April 2022

[busker]

Last Life in Death


What must it be to die unpeacefully,
not recognizing nurse or child or bed–
for mind to live when memory has fled,
to see and move and think  meaninglessly
trapped in a body, whole though nearly dead,
thoughts racing courses without knowing what
each thing perceived is called not having got
a clue from what those gathered say or said?
Yet though the mind is lost it still has brought
emotion from its living body - fear
of all its organs feel and see and hear
but cannot name in helpless, lonely thought.
Someone will have to close your frightened eyes
and wonder if she’ll panic as she dies.

Love this one, duke