To One Shortly To Die

   FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you:
   You are to die--Let others tell you what they please, I cannot
         prevaricate,
   I am exact and merciless, but I love you--There is no escape for you.

   Softly I lay my right hand upon you--you just feel it,
   I do not argue--I bend my head close, and half envelope it,
   I sit quietly by--I remain faithful,
   I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
   I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily--that is
         eternal--you yourself will surely escape,
   The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.

   The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!                 10
   Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence--you smile!
   You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
   You do not see the medicines--you do not mind the weeping friends--I
         am with you,
   I exclude others from you--there is nothing to be commiserated,
   I do not commiserate--I congratulate you.