This is actually about several people. What they have in common is that photographs on their dying moments or dead bodies have been shared on social media. So this is about that and the appropriate trigger warnings apply.
_________
I do not want to die
A violent death.
I do not want to know
That this is my last breath
Because another person willed it so.
I want to die in bed
With no drama
Asleep, in cozy pajamas
And in the triple digits.
But if I die, instead
Because I’m something terrible
To someone.
If I die in war, or I am killed in hate
Then I implore,
I ask for only this:
Put me on the Internet.
If you don’t know the exact circumstances of my untimely demise
But you do have a photograph
Of my still warm body
Bleeding into concrete
Share it.
Make the circumstances up
To fit the narrative that you prefer.
Please, make insensitive comparisons
Between me and other victims.
It’s a reasonably safe thing to do.
None of us after all can talk back to you.
Make us compete, in death, for sympathy.
Lost cause pitted against victim minority
I want to live on in your talking points.
And I just can’t wait to trigger a PTSD episode in someone who sees themselves in my story
Or at least, whatever story they’ve been told by you.
I’m living for the day when, in dying, I give the people who would have hated me in life
A stick to beat my grieving siblings with.
Please let my memorial be a Facebook post you hit share on without reading.
Tag in your friends. I can’t wait for mine to suddenly see me there, bleeding.
I
Just
Can’t
Wait.
Tom Juniper Poetry 