When I Am Gone

When I am gone, and from this world have flown, I would admonish you to not forget That I have loved and cherished you, my own, And even after death shall love you yet. But I’ve no wish to burden you with pain— Not for one month, one day, one second’s time— Insisting you remember would be vain, And causing you such grief, a selfish crime. While memory can help one to endure, Distressing recollection can be worse; Remembering, in some, effects a cure-- In others it’s essentially a curse. Thus knowing this, my love, I won’t resent Forgetting me, so long as you’re content. October 2, 2019 Please note: though the second line includes what appears to be that old grammatical bugbear, a split infinitive, I could argue that the word "not" is not a modifier, but part of a compound verb "to not forget", ie. to remember; also, its position makes it not only a stressed syllable but also much more emphatic.