A Word for Living Creatures

her heart slows,
stops beating, maybe,
maybe it stops beating
suddenly, like a car
without brakes
running into a tree
or a wall or falling 
into a lake.

she is dead, maybe,
or her heart is dead,
or something like it.
her heart isn’t beating.

she hears voices -
a doctor? her father?
a past lover? the great
and dead? -
she doesn’t know,
wants to tell the voices
to be quiet, to turn off 
the lights, but they 
keep talking, don’t 
turn off the lights.

she wants to know why 
the voices aren’t doing anything - 
bring me back to life,
bring something back,
quit talking in whispers,
quit pretending I can’t hear,
start talking, let me hear
what you have to say,
none of this murmuring,
none of this
water in the lungs, eyes, ears -

she is dying
or already dead
or something like dead,
and nobody 
will tell her the truth.