When you recite a dying poem to strangers. Try to sound less disfigured in front of them. Fix your posture, some words say with less blades in your tongue. Don’t look like you have been decomposing all this time.
When you recite a dying poem to strangers, end it with an open door, leave the hinges still attached and the door frame intact. Leave echoes of it behind to make dying seem less real and hostile for them. For you. Leave some sort of home behind, even if dysfunctional, say your condolences with a lighter breathe. Leave behind a blanket they can still live in without thinking of the war outside or inside of them. Leave them with an escape. That when they close their eyes, they do not see the water or the smoke or all these bleeding poems.
When you recite a dying poem to strangers, forget yourself. Die first for the poem to come alive. Or else they will not hear you. They will not mourn with you. They will take your words and fold them into their sleeves after they have barred their chests.
When you recite a dying poem to strangers, package it with less darkness. Swallow your pain. Put on a smile to lighten the mood. And say the word “gone” like you are not wilting from the inside out,outside in. Say “gone” like you know how to pick yourself up and go on. For crying out loud!! Just say something, these people are expecting you to say something. Talk!!!