First and Last Names

Final breaths, gangs of souls, known and unknown aliases, and the inadequacy of every farewell.

While watching my mother breathe her last breaths the other day, something occurred me.

I was in the hospice, making myself a little crazy, asking “Was that the last breath? Oh, no. Was that the last…” and so on.

The human body is doing quite a lot, the heart pumping, the breath and a hundred other systems humming along, largely unconcerned with what we think, want or feel. It’s all mysteriously bound to a stream of sensations, memory, questions and complaint, with a name.