Fear of Death

Humbly dedicated to the talented Ms. Houston with an appreciative nod to Sir Frances Bacon
 
Fear of Death

The way we judge the dead
is harsh, unrelenting,
and oh so pious.

“She lived too fast,
She played too hard,
She lived her life out of control.
Her death was inevitable.
A tragedy, but not a surprise
Tut, tut
Tsk tsk…”
 
Really?  Really?!?

This deep seated need to judge
from our glass houses,
and cast stones at corpses
is not about them,
rather it is about us…

The old joke goes,
the only certainties in life are
death and taxes
and we all laugh uncomfortably.
But we laugh
at death pushing it just a bit further away from us.

Who among us, I ask you, will not die?
Not me.
Not you.
Or you.
Or you.

Could we, then, in the time we have here,
be kinder to the dead
and let the lessons of their lives simply be?

Leave their families to their grief
without the added burden of our
fears voiced in the form
of vilification and verdicts about their loved ones?

Instead, could we, perhaps,
make the most of our summers,
swinging on fragrant willow boughs,
leaping fearlessly into the lake, and
gorging ourselves on life’s bounty
so that maybe, just maybe,
we’ll fear death a little less
and let the dead

Simply
Be
allowing them to rest in our peace.

~ Mk Michaels 2/2012