<html aria-label="message body"><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;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">I Will Sing On My Deathbed</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">I will sing on my deathbed, </font><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">glory the ending sufficient to honor</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">the passing of the windswept days</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">that have carried me above the depths</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">of this marvelous place </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">full of pain and suffering and </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">beauty beyond measure. </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">I will sing out so freely that the </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">jackdaws smile, and so loudly </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">that the children down the hall </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">will remember when they are grown old.</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">May I on my deathbed</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">sing of my failures that have garnished </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">the core of caring that held me</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">buoyant enough against despair </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">to hear my final song. </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><div><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">May I sing both the l</font>aughter and the tears </div><div>that are as one in the melodies of life,</div><div>so that my turbulent longing </div><div><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">bends towards some semblance of serenity,</font></div><div><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">as moment pushes moment </font></div><div><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">ever onward into the distance. </font></div></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">May my deathbed hold me </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">as if time stood still, </font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">while I sing </font>until I am done, </div><div style="font-size: 22px;">and the cock crows the arrival </div><div style="font-size: 22px;">of the morning of my ending.</div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;">I do not now feel done and will likely not then.</font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><font size="4" style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></font>- Tim Hicks</div></div></body></html>