Wraith

From my first breath

the other Heather

has been watching me

she will stay with me

hidden in the shadow

until the last hour

of the last day

when the light in me 

is darkening 

and then she will start

to grow visible.

My job is to work and walk 

under the sun

and hers is to walk me

away from it

into the tunnel that dims 

out from the opening 

that my flesh will never

know the end of. 

There are stories of 

other people 

telling how the wraith

the soul-shadow

walked in the last hours

to show the arc of their ending 

I hope that mine

will be cradling me in her arms

during my descent.

We die alone

with no other human 

traveling the last road with us

let me have my shadow self

to comfort me on the road

to my heart’s silencing.