If I Refuse To Die What Can Death Do About It

If I refuse to die—what can death do? It waits beyond the orchard gate, While lilacs lean with scent and hue And robins sing of love and fate. I’ve knelt in grasses starred with dew, Heard twilight’s hush in tender trees, My breath was shaped by skies of blue, My thoughts by wind and dreaming seas. Death may come with its quiet tread, A hush too vast for song or tear— But I have kissed the dawn instead, And held the stars, and felt no fear. If death should knock, I shall not flee— But I have lived, and that shall be A truth no grave can take from me.