I walk side by side with
All the lives I will never live.
I hold the hands of every version of me
That’s been killed.
Because I am the only one
That survived,
I bring their memory with me.
The dreams I set free,
The plans I crumpled up,
All to arrive to today.
It’s a bittersweet truth.
Because some versions I quite liked,
And still–they died.
Some by my hand, some by others,
And some by fate alone.
Glory be, I am here today.
Praise be to all the yesterme’s–
For their time, they were fully alive.
We greet death all the time.
Still, melancholy chokes a lump in my throat,
All of them have died.
And so will I.
Begrudgingly, I make peace
With dying again today.