“What is it in particular that frightens you about Death?”

I have known pain,

and I fear knowing worse pain

right as I pass.

That I will die in agony

before ceasing to exist forever.

I fear the lack of being.

That my brain will no longer carry messages

throughout my body or generate thoughts,

and my nerves will no longer register touch.

I fear that the marks I have left on this world

will have been too small

to pick out from a crowd

of lives lived louder than mine.

I fear my name will be lost to time,

as my body will be lost to grubs in the dirt,

or my ashes to the wind and waves.

In this moment,

I do not fear leaving those I love.

I know they will remember me

because I will have loved them deeply enough

and made it impossible

for them to forget.

But what about the rest?

I do not crave fame,

or a star set in concrete.

I know it sounds egotistical to say,

but I would like strangers to know my name,

for my words to have touched them

in some small way.

I fear my footprints upon this Earth

will have been too faint

to last.