Endgame I

Not for me
the long slow romantic drama
of the guttering candle.

The genteel fade into darkness.

Nor the painful slavery
to machines and medicines.

I would go out like a light.

Not subject
to the tyranny of the switch.

But in one last glorious
burst of incandescence,

One moment of brilliant light.

Then nothing
but the love left
in the hearts of the living.