Who Will Hold Me When I Die by Nancy Machlis Rechtman

 

Image | SHVETS Productions

Who Will Hold Me When I Die

The TV accompanied my life

Like a soundtrack playing in the background

I wasn’t really paying attention

Until the sonorous voice of the broadcaster solemnly proclaimed,

“She was surrounded by her loving family

As they said their last good-byes.”

The words rattled me

And the solitude pierced my heart

Until an unbidden tear trickled down my cheek

And I clicked the remote to Off

Then flung it across the room

And not for the first time, I wondered

Who will hold me when I die

When I’m bedridden

Hauntingly alone in a stark white room

Surrounded by the monotonous beep of machines

Just as the beat of my heart inevitably slows

I will sift through the memories that are all that remain of my life

Searching for the minuscule flecks of meaning

That has been my reason to hang on

Yet no one else will be able to see them

They will be so elusive that I will grasp fruitlessly as they flit through my brain

Trying to keep them from vanishing like the wave

Of a magician’s wand

Before the lights go out.

© Nancy Machlis Rechtman

Nancy Machlis Rechtman

Nancy Machlis Rechtman has had poetry and stories published in Writing In A Woman’s Voice, miniMAG, Discretionary Love, Young Ravens, and more. Nancy has had poetry, essays, and plays published in various anthologies. She wrote Lifestyle stories for a local newspaper and served as the copy editor for another paper.

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