Not everyone can make death wait;
You meet it well-prepared.
You do not deny your fate,
But have faced it long and well-aware.

Though the bloom must leave the rose
The end need not come soon.
All the doors are not yet closed.
Why wait alone in an empty room?

Life has slowed to match your pace;
You often pause and rest.
Illness may have lined your face,
Yet you are patient with your distress.

Life is as it ever was;
The people you know, the place you live.
There never was a need to rush:
To become the one named palliative.

Many leave this life without a prayer;
Without a vision in their soul.
Suddenly they leave their life of care,
It seems—their cup half full.

To some your progress may seem sombre,
But it is a blessing—not a curse.
An examined life is full of promise;
A foretaste of heaven, and of peace on earth.