While I’m Here

 

Everyone should know

Exactly where they stand in my life.

Not with long speeches or forced reunions,

But with the truth that meets you eye-to-eye.

Some of you all are kin by blood,

But if that cord was not braided with love,

We would not cross paths in this lifetime

By choice or chance.

And that is all right.

I have learned not to confuse DNA

With devotion.

Some are acquaintances,

Faces I pass like seasons:

Pleasant, brief,

Meant to teach or remind.

Some are friends,

Rooted deep,

Who watered my spirit

When my own well ran dry.

And some, just echoes—

Names I heard, but never felt.

I do not need to justify any of it.

People know the positions they earned

By what they said, what they did,

Or what they never could bring themselves to do.

And let me be clear:

I do not want nobody crying loud at my funeral

Just to be seen.

Do not parade grief for the crowd.

Do not dress me up in a fancy casket

Like love finally arrived

After I stopped breathing.

Do not put my face on a t-shirt

With wings and a halo,

Like you ever lifted me when I was here.

Do not send flowers

That never bloomed for me in life.

Do not print full-color obituaries

With pictures pulled from decades

You were never present for.

Give me my love now,

While my heart is still beating,

While my spirit can still rise

From the warmth of your words.

Appreciate me in sunlight, not shadows.

Honor me with presence, not performance.

Say it. Show it.

While I’m here.