What Does it Mean to Die?

What does it mean to die?

Is it the abrupt ceasing of the heart,

Or is it the transcendence into a new dimension,

As your soul slowly departs.

What does it mean to die?

Is death the mere absence of life,

Or is the other way somehow,

A wormhole of eternal strife.

What does it mean to die?

If you died, for instance, on Mars,

Or does it not matter where you die,

Since life is but a farce.

What does it mean to die?

If living was a chore,

Or would it still matter because,

You wouldn’t live anymore.

What does it mean to die?

She asked again, in a somberly curious way,

Would you like to be resuscitated?

Is all that I could say.

Would you like to be resuscitated?

Is all that I could say.

Dr. Rafiq

Dr. Rafiq is a board-certified internal medicine physician working as a hospitalist for Sound Physicians at Ascension Via Christi Hospital Wichita in Wichita, Kan. He is the president-elect of SHM’s Kansas Chapter.