"On Occasion of My Own Death" by DT McCrea

​DT McCrea is a trans anarchist poet living in Akron Ohio. Their work can be found at Honey and Lime and Taco Bell Quarterly. In their free time DT enjoys contemplating the nature of the universe and plotting the downfall of capitalism.

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​On Occasion of My Own Death
 
Please read this poem as I walk into the ocean.
Don’t read it on the beach with a crowd of listeners
I don’t want to make a spectacle.
 
You will know when it is happening.
You will have a dream with many broken things:
 
a clock
a zippo lighter
seven snapped human femurs laid at your feet.
 
In this dream a cardinal will be perched in the window sill
demanding repentance.
It will hold in its left talon a daffodil.
This will signify nothing.
 
When you awaken from this dream
this poem will be sitting on your lap.
Someone will hand you a glass of water
and when you look up you will see thirty folding chairs arranged at the foot of your bed
occupied by eleven people.
 
When you finish reading the crowd will say
 
What a beautiful poem.
What does it mean?
 
and you will drink from the glass of water.