Speak My Name and I Shall Not Die

Benjamin Franklin said “but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Paying tax may be painful Yet our death is the singular Most feared eventuality. For us all, we know from birth We will, at some point, reach the end. So many say clichés, Don’t waste time Not a rehearsal No pockets in a shroud YOLO. All true, yet what I fear More than my demise, The final breath, The end of existence, Is the fact I will be forgotten. I will be mourned, I guess, Never a certainty. I will be missed, In whatever measure. My children will grieve. The loss of a parent at any age, Disruption, normality smashed. The day after a fatality, Of an elder, parent, The first day in this earth without them. Raw. But time passes, Grieve eases, Mourning peters out And life continues for those Still residing on this mortal coil. The fact I will be forgotten. A day to day memory Becomes weekly, monthly Annually on special anniversaries. In time those who dwelt Along side me in this plane Will join me on the other side. In the realm where we know not What happened until we get there. If anything. The ultimate unknown. My name once dropped in conversation Tense changing from present to past Then distant memory. Then what? I fear one day I will No longer echo in the mouth Skip from the lips Of those who knew me in life. They too will become a distant memory for those who dwelt and walked with them. I cannot change how Others will choose to Remember me when I am gone. Yet to pay it forward With a wing and a prayer I choose to remember those Who walked before me. I did not know them Yet as I move through The graveyards and cemeteries Scattered on this land, I speak forth, out loud The names of those who Dwell in the next world. Allowing their names to Echo in my mouth Skip from my lips. Bringing back the energy lost To time and space, Since their last breath was drawn. Young and old, man and woman, Child and criminal, saint and sinner. All of us leave our stretch, Square with the house. So speak forth the names Of those who shaped our world, Bore our ancestors and Hope your name is uttered By Generations to come, by those who come after.