We are to come and leave and not return,
But hand our secret scroll to those who'd be.
I'll pass the writings on which passed to me,
And shrink to blackened ash with flameless burn.
As far as those who'll be--of whom will earn,
That secret scroll containing some of me,
Quite like yet quite unlike, in no way me--
They'll mourn for I'll have gone and won't return.
To live on in a heart or memory,
Is not living or life or anything,
But trite consoling words of sympathy--
A metaphor or best a simile--
suspending truth, and grief that loss will bring.
In truth no more am I nor shall I be.
(C)2015, Christos Rigakos