If I die, I will die of mortality  –
there is no other cause of death. 
Other things people might call it
are so many irrelevancies  –
whether I die of grief or mistrust or fear,
or of the planet’s burgeoning despair,
or of somebody’s anger, or someone else’s greed,
or of toxicity of any sort, bleeding
through the boundaries of being

All these so-called causes are just distractions,
for without mortality, I will not die.

Well then, let me consider
exactly what I am. Let me consider it
every hour. What are the colors and the flavors
of immortal moments?
What is my practice of living them?
It’s not about not wanting to die,
but of yearning to finally really live.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 3, 2022