I worry about how I will know when I am dead.
Is it when the skin of other people
becomes unbearably hot? Against my own?
Will I lose color vision and see only
black and white, stark and gradient, the faces
no longer flushed with anger or lust or shame?
I worry about how I will know
when I am dead in case it happens and I
don't notice. If it is not a choice that I make
for myself, then what if I am not
cognizant of it? What if I die and there is still
the specter of you hanging over me,
how could I tell the difference? What if I die and
memories of you, branded on my body,
remain brighter than the afterlife?
What if I die and am still haunted, how
can I be freed?