my deathday wish

so death would come and

I would die a poet!
I the lover you hate
in equal measure or worse.

but doNOT
do these in remembrance of me:

do not freeze my dead body like cow meat
to keep from rotting
or mummify it like koobi
put on exhibition at Mallam Atta;
keeping wake and crying …agyeii…agyeii…
soaking it in your polluted tears and
peddling deceptions I’m an example
in the good books as told of the prophets BC
and you get away with it
because I would not be there in breath to say
you have not spoken the truth.
No…

give this to earth before sunset,
without delay;
without any fancy coffin or epitaphic tombstone.
Otherwise, burn it all:
the flesh and the bones to ashes;
throw to the wind or sprinkle upon the sea.

light a bonfire and
live your life;
sit around with cups of coffee and share my poems;
my tributes to you the living and

I the lover you hate with passion!
I would be gone, ferried in the whirlwind;

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Wednesday February 1, 2012.
The day it was reported Wislawa Syzmborska died.