Ashes ashes we all fall down

If  Death knocked on my door with a handful of white roses,

I'd say,

"Hello old friend,

I hope you came for me. Because I don't want to be the one left behind.

I think about you a lot Death. I can't believe you would take some people I love away from me, but you take them to the same place, and that's where I'm going, right?

You forced weed killer down my brothers throat, but you let me stop you before you went too far. Was it some cruel joke? Or is that what friends are for?

You spared my grandfathers life years ago. They called him the walking miracle because of you. Thank you, because if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have learned how to surf, or make mickey mouse waffles, or see the beauty in the world, so thank you.

I remember when I swam after you. You took me so far out, and even though you were silent the whole time with your back turned, I thought you were on my side. I had to tell myself to stop following you and retreat back to shore, because I shouldn't be trying to talk to strangers. 

I wish you didn't come and go so abruptly, we never really had any good conversations. I've never come looking for you, but I do know people who have, and they regret ever trying.

How do you do it? How do you steal everyone's breaths and still be in the air around us?

Hope says not to be worried about you. She says you won't bother me yet. I told her I'm scared of you. She says not to be, that I have plenty of time and I'm on the bottom of the list. But then I think about the kid standing on the train tracks, or Anne Frank, and I'm scared again. 

I've dreamt about you Death. Did you know that? I see you all the time in pictures, I hear you in stories, but still you're only real in my head. I realize now you're not the wicked villain in a comic book, you're the wolf. We've all been tricked once, twice, until we stop listening. By the time we hear you, the sheep are already dead and you've gone missing. And we all cry wolf.

Yet I know I can't reason with you...

So let me go pack my things."