A Tribute To Nelia Poem by Virgilio Ponciano A. Ocaya

My pretense at verses on getting old, dying, and doing.

I offer this as tribute to the memory of Nelia Sancho's long track of heroism and activism that will inspire a thousand Nelias and Nelios to come.

This started as Seniors' talk on health and the inevitability of death.

I presume
All of us
Are doing
relatively well
healthwise

If not,
we take imagined comfort
or drug-induced alleviation
or equip with resolve
Or take an option
To think well
Regardless of unhealth
and the crush of its minions

I come to this sense
from the exchange between my co-seniors in another socmed group H____ and B____
that there's only
a one letter difference
between doing and dying
"O" and "Y"

Dying is inevitable
Immutable
But what is worth celebrating
Is that as we die
We are doing our best
Within the limits
Of our awareness
With the best interests
Of the next generations
in our hearts and minds

And even as we die
We are doing
And doing well - regardless
of the pit of pain
and indescribable unease

When we live for self
We die with our last breath
Our last thought

When we live for others
Especially the nameless,
Our lives linger on
In their breaths
And thoughts
Long after we're gone
as we imagine
as captains of our ships
for calmer seas

Doing, big or small
that's immortality
enough for me
We begin
to write our own stories
But the rest is not ours to say
Whether this way
Or that
Is history's assignment
To proclaim
Or ignore completely
Or at best whisper
In a footnote

Doing and Dying
"O" and "Y"
Don't stand for
Oh, Why?
But
Oh, Yeah!

In the darkest of nights
Let's not be content
With starlight
From few heroes

Let's go for daylight
From many