When I Am Gone

When I am gone,

do not dress the world in black.

Do not silence your laughter,

as if joy would betray my memory.

Instead—

open the windows wide,

let the wind carry my absence

through the curtains of your heart.

Remember me not in the stillness of graves,

but in the trembling of the stars,

in the breath of dawn

when the sky bleeds its first light.

I will not live in stone

or in the weight of carved names.

I will live

in the way you lift your face to the rain,

in the warmth of your hands when you hold another’s sorrow,

in the courage it takes

to love despite knowing love always risks loss.

Do not weep for me long.

Tears are rivers,

and rivers must keep flowing,

seeking oceans,

seeking endlessness.