All I want is a quick and easy death.
Not a protracted nursing home death
where I’d probably get dementia
before I died years later with
an obliterated mind and wasted body.
Not a lingering painful death
in chronic pain for months or years.
Not a miserable drawn-out death
where I’m supposed to be dead
in months but it drags on for years.
Not an expensive death that
costs me thousands before I die
and creditors come after me
on my deathbed.
Not a brought back to live death
that might bring me back worse
then when I was supposed to
be permanently dead.
Not a dramatic ICU death
with all that noise,
machinery and clamor or
a doctor slamming those
paddles on my chest
merely delaying my death.
I want a death like a massive
dead-in-a-second heart attack,
too quick for pain or fear
too quick for being helpless
and aware of the indignity
of being stuffed
in an ambulance.
Too quick for the painful
realization that my once
healthy body is doomed to
unhealthiness for the remainder
of my waning life ….
under the harsh lights and
frenzied ministrations
in the ER or the ICU.