Another little message

Today I spent a few hours in our house, the cosy little place we built into a home together. I've made a point of being there as often as possible; it grounds me. I have a deep love for the time spent there and, for now at least, I get comfort out of being under the roof. I started the process of changing the place up a little, something I'll talk about more in future, and dug up her laptop. She'd been looking at old pictures of me... Her emails were open and I scanned them to see was there anything I needed to follow up on. One stood out - a message from a friend with death in the title from early April. In it was a link to this poem - Epitaph by Merrit Malloy...

When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands
By letting
Bodies touch bodies
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away