<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">The Thing About Dying</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">The thing about dying is</div><div dir="auto">I <a tabindex="-1" style="color: rgb(56, 88, 152); cursor: pointer;"></a>won't get over it.</div><div dir="auto">I can't say, well</div><div dir="auto">that sure taught me a lesson--</div><div dir="auto">let's go home and have a drink.</div><div dir="auto">Impossible to believe</div><div dir="auto">in my own ending.</div><div dir="auto">I'll continue on somewhere, find myself</div><div dir="auto">in the barren halls of Bardo</div><div dir="auto">waiting for a spare embryo,</div><div dir="auto">eager to curl up inside some woman's belly,</div><div dir="auto">ready for the next round of traumas.</div><div dir="auto">My turn for famine. Or torture.</div><div dir="auto">Payback for those things I did to my sister.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">I really don't think I'll come back as a snail</div><div dir="auto">or a flea, I'm almost sure</div><div dir="auto">I've got that sort of thing behind me.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">But suppose it really is absolute</div><div dir="auto">darkness descending and nothing</div><div dir="auto">to follow. Not even silence.</div><div dir="auto">(Silence needs someone to notice it.)</div><div dir="auto">Never to see the high-flying blue</div><div dir="auto">and white sky again.</div><div dir="auto">Or the sea.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">The sea.</div><div dir="auto">That powerful, wide-winged old woman.</div><div dir="auto">every time I look, she's there where I left her.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto">When I die, I doubt</div><div dir="auto">she will stay on very long without me.</div><div dir="auto">The waves rolling in</div><div dir="auto">without my praise to assist them.</div><div dir="auto">No, if there's nothing</div><div dir="auto">after I die, if it really is the end,</div><div dir="auto">I'll have to take the sea with me when I leave.</div><div dir="auto">Forgive me.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><div dir="auto"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Mildred Tremblay</div></div></div></body></html>