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!

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.