When you die
People you will have never met
will give your family condolences
When you die
Spurned former lovers will
send delicate flowers
When you die
People will be summoned to
make you look beautiful
The way that you felt on nights
you enjoyed being yourself the most
When you die
Cautious children will cry
without ever learning
of your conflicting views on children
When you die
They might hang the church wall
with pictures of weddings
and graduations
When you die
You may not be alone
When you die
You might be the first and
the others will all follow
Having made no preparations of their own.
When you die
They might play your favorite song
or they might play a more "appropriate" song
as they lead you away
and some people will be scolding themselves
about forgetting where they parked
When you die
They may have forgotten that you didn't
believe in the afterlife
Quotations from Leviticus notwithstanding
When you die
You could be the the one who made
the most important impact on your daughter or son's life
You might have their life worth living
When you die
It may be to no applause
When you die
It may inspire your mother's gynecologist
to visit a church for the first time in almost half a decade
and feel genuine empathy for the rituals of human dignity
regardless of the tribe
When you die
none of your siblings may attend
the rain might pore on your last parade
and people might go home early
When you die
Everybody may just have a great time
heads beaming, shoulders high
When you die
It might be the longest day of Summer
with waterfights in the park near you were born.
When you die
You will have lived to see
all your ambitions come alive
Even if that penpusher "Reality"
explicitly states otherwise.
Persephone in Greek mythology is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and is queen of Hades, the underworld.
Legend has it that her mother went to Hades to try and persuade her to return to Mount Olympus, with no success.