it’s like sleeping.
They’ll be afraid to close their eyes -
that they might not wake-up
that they’ll drift off to become not.
Don’t tell them what lies beyond.
No one can.
Don’t promise them they’ll meet
the ones who have gone and not returned.
Or worse yet -
that the wrong will be punished
in a fiery pit
with a man dressed in horns.
Or they’ll come back
as a bird or a whale or a tree.
What you believe
don’t put upon them.
When they ask
say -
live each moment
as if it were your last day.