The Fear of Death

By Irene Simtoco

Looking up at the two-hundred feet roller coaster,

A woman with a pink visor asks her daughter,

“Why don’t you want to go on?”

To which her frightened daughter replies,

“I read online that some people died on roller coasters!”

On a later day, at a later hour

The same family buzzes in excitement

About planning a vacation to Fiji.

All except for the little girl, Lacey,

Who crosses her arms and pouts,

“I read online that some people died from airplanes!”

Due to her insistent whining,

The family decides to go to the local beach instead,

But when they arrive there,

Lacey refuses to get in the water, saying

“I read online that some people died from sharks and drowning!”

Ten months go by.

It is no longer summer.

The sound of snow crunching can be heard outside.

Staring outside at the little flurries falling

From a white hospital bed,

Lacey is now full of regrets.

“But Mom, I did everything I could to avoid death!”

Lacey exclaims.

“I know honey, but you can’t always prevent it,”

Her mom replies,

Worried if her daughter will die of organ failure.

No matter how hard one tries to live forever,

Death is inevitable.

The snow still falls.

The time still ticks.

No one knows

Just how much time they have left.

Lacey realized then that

This whole time she had been alive,

She was not living.

She was merely surviving, for

To be afraid of death

Is to be afraid of life.

The little girl regretted not going on that roller coaster,

Not jumping on that plane to Fiji,

Not swimming in the ocean on that hot summer’s day.

She regretted it all.

Sadly, coming to those realizations

Did not change much.

The snow still fell

And the time still ticked.

Lacey laid back on her bed,

Still watching the snow fall.

She took a deep breath,

Gently closed her eyes,

And prayed that death

Would give her a second chance.