Last Embers

Do I do the last of you justice?

Or have I swept away the embers

That burned on your deathbed,

Replaced them with something

You would deem abhorrent?

.

Some days I wonder if you ever

Meant to leave me these embers.

I am sure that this was just a casualty

Of your last breath approaching

Too rapidly for you to lay out plans.

.

Loyalty put me at your side at the end,

But it was a betrayal to you that I

Had to be the one to cradle your dream.

Maybe I should have apologized

For the world on your deathbed.

.

What will your ghost think of me?

Of the way I stand near your legacy

With a large glass of cool water,

Wondering if it's worth killing the fire

To change the legacy you leave?

.

I am familiar with the hatred of you.

It haunts me then as its own ghost,

A quiet voice hissing in my thoughts.

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder...

Would the water quiet that fire too?