A Wake, A Sleep

Lying in the casket
Is a body so familiar
Yet so alien
Imagining the rise and fall of breath
But only an illusion
Spurred by wishful thinking

The briefly-lived flowers
Surround the semblance
Of a briefly-lived life
One of beauty
Gone too soon

Was this body only a vessel,
A container for a brain
Regulating a balancing act
Composed of breath, blood, and bone
That one day ceased to function?

Or was there some spark,
A soul, if you would
That fueled a fire of life
And slipped away to somewhere else
With its last embers?

And what are we in the end?
When everyone who knew us is gone
When we let out that last gasp
When we become legally dead

Are we nothing?