220806 a note on dying

 Aug. 6 

[A note on this poem: I am not dying! But, I wanted to make sure I say this to those who will one day know that I have died. I hope it is many years from now!]

a note on dying 

don't cry

if I died alone

i have never been alone 

i am the sun 

in transmutation

once i cast a shadow on the universe

i am energy and remain 

constant 

don't cry

if i died in pain

pain is only transition

a passage of time

a river to wade 

to get to the other shore

you go on or

the  river carries you 

don't cry

if i died and you were not there:

in spirit 

in the everywhere of existence 

you were there

i wished for you in my arms 

but i held you in my heart and so i was content

don't cry

because i am gone

i am not gone

i am taken

energy and matter 

into the earth

i will return, sleepy, as a tree, or

a person you meet will remind you of me

she will tell you her name it's my name

sun returned to sun

water to water

rain to river i am not ever gone

only changing 

only like a shooting star come to earth 

and don't cry

i have lived long enough to comprehend how precious this is

that we can see and feel this world

hold each other and love

i will have needed to be somewhere else that day

free of pain or fear 

i will have needed to lay down my head and sleep

there will always be words unsaid

so many 

books unread

there are the children

remember the things 

that were said

tell stories to the children 

i was not a saint only human

wrong a thousand times

many mistakes and sometimes i learned

and passed some wisdom on

don't cry

come back soon to your time

face forward and keep walking 

i will be there

i am in the way you see the new day

the way you hold the baby

i am the earth under your feet the water

running to ground

[my/hlk, 2022 07 13]

Mumma Yaga