I one day awoke
Expecting nothing save
Another day,
When to my surprise I found
An unremembered guest
Beside me in the bed.
Smiling sweetly at my surprise
With tender love,
In loving eyes,
She whispered,
“I shall spend this day with thee
And long shall you remember me
For I am death
Of all you see
And I have come
For love of thee.
For you have loved me all the long night
Though now you see me in the light
You know me not.
For you have not beheld my form,
Mistaking others for me.
But I am the lovely, loving one
Behind your joy and happiness.
I am beauty, I am the veil
Of mystery.
I am kindness, and forgiveness.
I am the sweetness of your days.
I am all the good you see.
For I am death, and all I bear,
In time return to me.
Your loves shall pass
I make them dear;
This moment
This day
This life of years.
I breath sweet beauty into the days,
Tenderness into your acts and plays.
Reason I sit in place to rule,
For I give thee purpose,
And to achieve, the tools.
For I am all
From dawn to dusk.
Without me you are a lifeless husk.
For I am all the good in thee,
And all the good you do and see.
So with death
I spent one brief day
From the sunrise to the sunset
And the moments in between.
And the day was strangely even sweeter
Than the days that had already been.
I kissed my love and lo!
She was dearer than before.
Love welled up, a rising tide,
For dear indeed was my beloved
With death waiting at my side.
And as I about my duties went
Death stayed beside me still,
And every moment, every face,
My senses seemed to fill.
My thoughts dwelt on my fortune.
On the good in what I saw.
Forgiveness and compassion,
Understanding every flaw
In the evening I pursued my dreams.
Shared dreams with my love.
And in deaths arms we loved anew,
Till we saw death no more.
But heard her whispering, “Farewell,
My memory with thee sleeps.
For ever I am with thee
Behind all you hold so dear.
And dear indeed shall life remain
So long as I am near.
For I am death
Of all, and thee.
Of all the good you do, and see.
I am death,
And all I bear,
In time return to me.
And when in time I call your name,
When your time is at an end,
Come to me then unafraid,
To an old familiar friend
