Dear Death
I know you are calloused and impartial,
And care not for the whims of a mere mortals like me.
But Death,
Hear my plea,
Don’t come for my son,
Until you’ve come for me.
It’s a common request,
One you get all the time.
And it is selfish.
I know.
But Death,
Hear me out.
My neighbor,
Mrs. Fergeson lost her boy.
He was 10 years old.
He strangled himself,
With an elastic headband
Hanging from his bedroom doorknob.
I think of her often.
How can you come back
from something like that?
I think of my Aunt Lynne.
She lost her son,
In a motorcycle accident,
Run over by a semi-truck.
He was 25,
With 2 young boys of his own.
How did she find the strength,
continue after that?
How did she find,
The courage to go on existing?
I know I don’t deserve any special treatment.
I am flesh and blood,
Just like everybody else.
But death,
I love my son.
Don’t take him away from me.
3 thoughts on "Dear Death"
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Actually weeping right now, Heather. So beautiful and true.
The anguish of that possibility. Beautiful – do not come until you’ve come for me
This HITS me HARD! I almost lost my child, so I know how it is to plead endlessly for their life to continue. . . I was one of the lucky ones and I cannot imagine, though I tried, what all those other mothers had to go through when they lost theirs. . .Thank for this poem, for it made me weep tears of sorrow and of joy, for my fortunate outcome.