When Death Asked Again Poem by Sumaiya Azad

One day Death asked me, 'How is life? '
I snapped, 'Alive enough to defy you.'
With a sinister smile, he told me to wait.

I forgot what I left behind
and what awaited me.
I clung to my so-called life,
struggling to breathe.
Life tried to tear me from itself,
inflicting more trauma.

I smiled through the pain;
and said, 'Try all you can; I won't turn from you—
not until He comes and pleases me.'
Night after night, I crumbled with pain,
each day harder to survive.

I called for help,
help from Death itself.
I couldn't stand on my own feet.

Suddenly, a knock at my door-
asking permission to enter.
And there He was again.
He asked, 'How is life? '
Through streaming tears, I whispered,
'Why did you leave me back then?
If you hadn't left me then,
I would have survived.'

Unpleasantly, He smiled- cold, fleeting,
a shadow brushing across my soul.