Don't you dare

It is not an unheard sadness, for friends to die.
To selfishly leave us stranded down this gravity well
While themselves going on to pursue the next great adventure(tm).

It is uncertain to what extent the departed are aware of the world
What consciousness they retain in their corporal remains
With this certain knowledge of death's uncertainty, here is a claim I can venture:

Funerals aren't held for the dead.
After all,
No corpse has ever said thank you
No cadaver has ever given a final bow
No earthly remains have ever commented wistfully on the excellent selection of words in the final dedication to their lives.

No...

Funerals?
They're for the living.

A chance for those left behind to gather up feelings
Get thought emotion empathy all mashed together
Share with others a show of simple humanity
And honour the one who has left them.

To dress up and look the part of the mourner
To drown in seas of black and tears
To attempt to cement memories of ashes and dust
As though, by wearing the right clothes
By saying the right things
By singing the right songs
And by sharing together in this experience
All can collectively agree the soul is now fully lain to rest.

For the individual:
This is done by acting up your very best
To show, more than anything, that you care
That you would never do anything to disrespect memory
And so we speak in sadness while we dress lovingly in pure darkness

.
.
.

When I die, don't you dare wear black
Don't.
You.
Dare.

While I understand the funeral is for you, and not me,
I must still *insist* on this one thing.

You may play songs I have never listened to
Read from books I have never read
Even bring friends I have never met
For all these I would be open to in life.

But
To dress in a way I actively avoid
To reduce the colour in this world
To indulge in those very clothes
For which sadness smartness and repression are habitual.

No. You don't get that this time.
You don't get the easy way to show you care.
It would not show my memory respect
And I don't think it would feel genuine for anyone there.

When I die, please, please wear rainbows
Drape yourselves in shades and styles of colours and light
For I assure you, it is at this time, more than others
You will feel me trying my best to be there.

I will go, knowing that, just once with certainty
I will have brought a little colour to peoples' lives.

So don't you dare wear black.

Vegan Holla

Holla, Holla, holla at my vegan boy
This is not a song to berate irritate or annoy

And holla, holla, holla at my vegan girl
At the tenacity in giving this philosophy a whirl

Alright, let's remove any preconceptions for a bit
Life does not come with a morality kit
We all decide now how to make our way
Where to make our home, how to make our pay
One daily decision which we make and repeat
Is to choose the food that we cook and eat
Just heed this warning when choosing your diet and food
Of any strongly aligned societal attitudes

So even though I'm afraid I could never really try it
Let me say I will not go at you for your vegan diet
Be it environmental - less carbon in the atmosphere
Be it ethical and mental - wanting no animalian harm or fear
Be it health or wealth - be it pure fussiness
This leads me to a most important point to address
While there is a joke about vegans being loud and obnoxious
I've never encountered one of these folks while conscious

So holla to those who live in a different fashion
Who persue what they do with tenacity and passion

But no holla or shout out to those who bully on repeat
There's really nothing special about eating meat

End of days?

The preacher he screaches at the tops of his tobacco stained lung
"Beware the end of days, whether you are old or young
I'm not sure if you have heard my words before
But we are all dying and the Earth's at war!

Beware the plagues, beware the frogs and especially the locusts
Be aware of this sage, take logs and don't lose your focus
We walk on a knife's edge, about to fall into a chasm
I Talk truth of life and you people bawl twitch and spasm

Can you not see the signs, have you never listened to the news?
This planet is dyin', glisten the truth of our abuse
There's new pestilence, diseases, we're either obese or starving
Oh, the ignorance of the young, is this not somewhat startling?"

Stoic, I stared. I did not intende to be cruel.
Wishing not to mock drive, I had to question fuel.
"Dear sir, much older and more experienced than I
I know not the manner by which we shall die

The wisdom of the ancients are not mine to claim
Yet please take heed of what I say all the same
We are living in our most peaceful era of existence
We've far less war, we've almost slain pestilence

Humanity is global now. We are all kin folk.
We can chat over miles, hell we can cry and joke.
If this is truly to be the way we, as humanity, go
There is no more reasonable end that I know."

Ignorance

An ode, my friends, to those ignorant men,
My brethren in a most global misdeed.
Who show our most prominent flaw when,
We fail to notice love someone seeds.

We unwittingly reject advances,
Unknowingly we stay in solitude.
It's not that we fail to take chances,
It's not that we try to act like a prude.

We are just clueless, and utterly so,
Don't believe love is for the likes of us.
We get regret - when realised - we know
We had a chance at something more than lust.

Please see that our silence means nothing less,
Than us men simply are just that clueless.

A tree in the forest

It stood nobly
Only bowing to the wind
And so, it was respected

Animals were granted access
Gracious for the privilege
They built secure homes

Plants around kept their distance
Do not venture too closely
Was knowledge all knew

Skies flicker
Rains come and go
The tree stands

The proud humans come
Knowing nothing
Of unspoken forest law