The Music You Hear at the End

At the end, you hear this music

This beautiful orchestra

--Or not

Depending on the kind of life you led

And the kind of death you want

You hear a symphony

If you were dramatic

Poets hear symphonies

And people who die

Having loved

And loved greatly

You hear jazz

If you’ve traveled

And made love to beautiful people

Whose names you never knew

And spent money you didn’t have

And ate food that made you fat

You hear a cello

If you were lonely

More than you weren’t lonely

You hear seventeen violins

If you led a religious life

A life of piety and devotion

You hear a piano

With booze-stained keys

And an empty jar on top

If you laughed

And if you made others laugh as well

You hear a gospel choir

If you grew up with a big family

Although someone’s off-key

And you can’t figure out who it is

You hear a saxophone

If you lived in a city

You hear a trumpet

If you lived in the country

You hear a harp

If you never had children

And if you did have children

You hear a hundred drums

All being played at once

You don’t tell anybody

About the music you hear at the end

Because you’re too busy listening

To try and explain it to anyone

And you know that eventually they’ll hear their own music

And it won’t sound anything like yours

As the music plays

Doctors are fetched

Tears are shed

Family members hold hands

And nobody notices

The music swell

Nobody notices

The smile moving across your face

As your eyes close

And body relaxes

And it isn’t death that takes you away

--But the music

And if you could speak at that moment

You’d say to the doctors and the nurses

And the family members

‘Ssshhh, ssssshhh

Listen

Listen to that’

And if they could stop crying

And if the machines could stop beeping

And if everyone could take that moment

To stop fighting this thing

That was going to happen no matter what

And just listen

They would hear it

The orchestra or the trumpet

Or the piano

Or the tuba

Or the cello

Or the promiscuous jazz

And they would know

That where you’re going

There’s music

And so how bad

Could it be?