I tell people in poems or speech
that I do not fear death.
They scoff and say that everyone does.
There is no convincing. I am quiet.
But to myself I think: I don't believe
that death can hurt me more than life did.
Oh, I stood it like a man and gave some back
But Hurt after hurt until pain became balm.
Life or death, what reason to fear eternity,
at its worst only brings more of the same.