When you die
Will your lives attend your funeral
Will they be dressed formally carrying black umbrellas
Sitting in the back of the room apart from everyone else
Mysterious strangers that no one recognizes
When it comes time for the mourners
To say a few words about you
Will your lives stand up one by one
And reveal secrets that will leave others aghast
Thinking they never really knew who you were
Will they recite a litany of all your wrongs
Beginning in childhood and continuing far too long
The angry words the hurtful acts the shameful deeds
Will they accuse and blame and indict you
As you have done yourself so many 3 A.M.s?
Or will they instead celebrate how ardently you loved
How fiercely you stood your ground how artfully
You fashioned victories from defeat’s tangled debris
And when your coffin passes by give you a wink and a thumbs-up
Then join the procession out the door and vanish into the rain
Buff Whitman-Bradley is a longtime peace and social justice activist and a writer whose work has appeared in many print and online journals. His interviews with members of the military who refused to fight were the basis of the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. His podcast of poems about aging, memory and mortality, Third Act Poems, can be heard at thirdactpoems.podbean.com He lives in northern California with his wife, Cynthia.
