What they Said While They Were Leaving

Artist Paul Klee, who died on this day in 1940, often invoked a childlike perspective when addressing matters of life and death. I’ve long loved the angels he painted, full of flaws and worries, trapped in human-like, sometimes animalistic forms. This morning I was looking at one of his last works, “Death and Fire” and the timing of this happens to coincide with my review of a book Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death, by Lisa Smartt. I bought it years ago. Thinking of a character was my official reason, but the interests of a character are always covers for the questions we carry. I pulled it out again today, because I have a character facing death, and I am struck by the inherent playfulness of so many of the last words recorded in Smartt’s accounts, culled from documentation of many hospice patients over time.  There’s a sense of play in the voices of many of the dying, even at the “most serious” moment in life. I am always drawn to those for whom seeming opposites can coexist in the same space: joy and pain; life and death; wonder and heartache.

The following are notes assembled partly from found phrases in the book and online, considering what people say as they are leaving.

Time to move some boxes, one said.

Another claimed he was missing a passport, unable to fly.

One claimed to be the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, 

then called Bullshit! and left.

One asked for chocolate shavings on her tongue. 

Another, a cigarette. Pancakes with whipped cream.

Then come the metaphors. Listen.

Get ready for the big dance!

Lots of new construction over there!

Magic time: watch me disappear!

See the little duckies now, lining up.

They are setting the table now.

The ones who saw it as a battle went hardest.

Another dreamt of being surrounded by crows. 

It’s a murder! he said, laughing.

Some heard music, exclamations of wonder.

So many people! Can you tell me where the platform is?

Can you get the door for me?

Where do you want me to put these boxes?

Next stop, real hope! Look, they left the ladder.

Some saw butterflies, the number eight, the color green.

Others said nothing, but reached with their arms, up and out,

eloquent as infants in their expressions of need.

Image: Death and Fire by Paul Klee, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.