What If I Died And You Were Not Here? Poem by Sophia White

What if I died and you were not here
If you were far, far away
And I died while you were gone.
Would you hear of it soon?
How would you be reached?
By telephone? By mail?
In what fashion, in what way
Would they tell you that
I died while you were gone.
Or would they not think
To hunt you down and tell you.
Would they even know you'd care?
What if they buried me somewhere
And did not tell you how or when
Until it was too late,
And my grave was grown over
Choked and clotted with weeds
So that you could not find me?
What if they tried, but could not find
You anywhere upon the globe?
And somewhere in some foreign world
You were laughing and speaking
In a tongue I'd never known
Living for weeks in ignorance
Laughing, not knowing
I had died – what if?
Until finally you return home
With gifts for me, strange things
You had collected,
And I am not there waiting.
You wonder what could possibly
Detain me from meeting you,
So you get a little angry
And call my house.
But I do not answer.
So you would drive to our
Favorite restaurant
And there you would discover
My family, sitting silently,
Gaping at you.
“Where have you been? ”
You will stare in confusion,
And then they will tell you how
I died, and you were not here
For you were far, far away
And I died while you were gone.