Oh, give me a human death
If the world should end tonight
If its precincts should succumb to the sun’s holy light
or a great rock halve it’s life,
or it perish in man’s nuclear stupidity
I would not leave
I would not freeze my mind or battery my soul
I will go gladly to the shadow with all of earth’s cast
I will come into night with its cats and insects,
its weeds and sharp mountains and its disease
I do not want a digital cradle
I’d rather die with time’s animals than live a timeless life
Eternity cannot have me
I am made of too many happy atoms to be sad about death
I want to perish
I want to flame
I want to cry brightly
I want the agony of love
the beauty of the lost
I want the poetry ghosts have
I want to decay
I want my little human body to have its season and then away
and then away into its quiet room
I want to stand with my creaking bones
hold this last sorrow and say farewell
Say so long
to tomorrow
and tomorrow
and tomorrow
Tekst: Samuel Hurley
Afbeelding: Tessa Limberger