"Dear death" by Alexis M Levine

One Poem Only · Nov 8, 2025 · 2m

A poem inspired by Emily Dickinson

Dear death

How can I stay

when you,

more than life,

make me feel

seen?

They call you cruel,

but I have seen

the gentleness in your cruelty—

the mercy in your ending,

the way you unburden bones

and hush the screaming thoughts

no one else could hear.

What if the ones who scream

are not cruel,

but trying to anchor me

to a world they still believe

can bloom?

And I—

have I given everything a chance?

Or have I fallen

so in love with the idea

of not hurting

that I’ve forgotten

what healing might feel like?

Do not rush.

But when you come home,

come softly.

Let me…