Reading that Sunday’s newspaper supplement
Those We Lost, he was warmed by how many

of those recollected had touched his life too:
memories shaped by their presence and what

was left behind, hearing and seeing afterwards
to feel life all over again. He contacted a few

closest friends and asked if they would want a
forfeit of his life for any such as those others.

It couldn’t be a free-for-all – and apart from not
eschewing his own survival completely, he wanted

a category to be made up with the like-minded,
some deep empathy in any permanent exchange,

so he selected Musicians / Writers / Actors / Artists
(‘creatives’ as a shared love), and though never

thinking he’d made similar impressions, hoped
this would be a prompt and urge for remembering him.

From however many of these, one would be chosen
to return and take his place, and it’d be his decision

entirely – the least he would ask for in the offering.
Setting a deadline up to the end of the week

(as plenty of time for their deliberations) he did
receive one response early the next morning.