When we are gone
when our bones are dust
when are DNA is deteriorated
and when our belongings
are repurposed,
thrifted, trashed:
What will remain?
What imprint
will our brief presence
on this orb leave
for those who linger?
How will our memories
convert to larger lessons
for future generations?
What do we want
the echoes of our absence
to press into the living?
We know that energy
is never lost, nor formed
it is only borrowed.
And perhaps it is the same
with emotions,
with hopes,
dreams, passions.
I hope to leave a legacy
of kindness
of compassion
of wit
of joy
of deeply felt existence.
I hope the energies that
fed me
pushed me
directed my purpose
find new homes in
the ripples and shimmers
seen in jangling shadows
cast by windswept
leafy branches.
A little hint,
a wisp
of something bigger
in the void
of my physical self.
