When you are dead,
no one invites you over for a drink

Birthday parties are no longer valid,
and holidays are past pictures,
cards,
and fading memories

When you are dead,
no one sees what you’re wearing

No one speaks to you as someone alive anymore

No one notices the dirt beneath your nails,
or the dust that fills your nose,
or the ghost that you’ve become

When you are dead,
even the stones shut their eyes