What Is Left

What is left when my hair turns gray, falls out?
          when my skin wrinkles?
          when my eyesight dims,
          and hearing fades?

What is left when the poems,
          the songs, the melodies
          no longer come to me?
          are no longer needed from me?

What is left when memory blurs?
          when I’ve forgotten even my youthful body?
          my sparkling mind?
          my loved ones’ names?

What is left when I can no more remember
          what upset me?
          what delighted me?
          what I allowed to define me?

What is left when all that was not me
          is gone?
          and all that I thought was me
          has followed?

What is left when that single remaining
          point of consciousness
          is surrounded by nothing
          but the universe?

What is left is
          Everything.