(Photo courtesy: Last portrait of mother by Daphne Todd)
Postmortem
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She lies senseless
Sprawled on the hospital bed
The indignity of disease and death
Another chunk of meat
For the butcher’s block
Nothing
I look in the mirror
I see an empty skull hidden
under layers of flesh and blood
I am nothing
Just a bunch of chemical formulas
If I pass tomorrow
I’ll be mourned but for a short time
Then forgotten
Like a wound that heals leaving no scar behind
Life begins and it ends
No two opinions about it
`
Then why
Do I worry and fret
Do I pretend and hide
Do I smile, nod and fake empathy
Do I chase after depression
`
I am but a grain of sand on the beach
A drop in the ocean
A speck of dust in a largely unknown universe
A fraction of a second on the clock of life
I am nothing