Bowing Out

A good death would be one that wasn’t
The worst day of your life. And why not?
A good day with a quick, quiet end.

Why not consult not-quite suicides
And those who’ve survived near-death escapes?
Interview enough of them. Find out

Which ones felt pretty good to the end,
The end that didn’t quite come for them.
Could you duplicate those conditions?

Pass every day in those conditions?
Probably not. But you’d get a sense
Of what a not-worst last day might be,

Sort of a Shakespearean sonnet,
One last pirouette in the couplet.