When my time has come to leave this life,

No services will there be.

No chance to tell the others

Just what you thought of me.

Platitudes won’t help the grieving,

My presence has been lost.

Why do we wait until someone dies

To utter words which have no cost?

Tell me now, while I can still hear,

Tell me now what I bring to your being.

If you wait until I’m dead and gone

I will never know if I brought you meaning.

It matters to me that I leave a legacy,

Love spread and shared with many

But how do I know my legacy exists

If I’m not told so by any?

So tell me now, help me to know

That my path is on the straight and narrow.

Don’t wait and regret those words not spoken

For me, they are a gift, not token.