Brett Warren
If I’m Lucky
the worst thing about dying will be
how I won’t be able to write about it
what I thought & felt
what I saw & smelt
the oh fuck! or what the hell…? of it
or the last contented breath of it
the regret or peace or relief of it
the whack or languid pull of it
the radiance or dimming or fire of it
the antiseptic or floral rot of it
the simple unraveling
or sensory overload of it—
how I won’t reveal if a colossal face
peers down through a hole in the clouds
if a massive hand scoops me up
like a cosmic Ferris wheel
& sets me back down as Cleopatra
or a dung beetle or crushes me
in a divine comment on insignificance.
Brett Warren shares her late mother’s utter disinterest in the idea of an afterlife and might prefer reincarnation, though perhaps not as a human.