By Victor Emmanuel Uwah
Cry for me while I am yet on earth,
Before I depart from it in death,
That the Lord may perchance for your sake
My earthly sojourn rewarding make.
Cry, and the Lord may possibly hear,
That naught will I hold on earth so dear
Which may entangle my soul therein
And cause my spirit to run to ruin.
If you love me don’t now fail to cry
That the Lord may all I need supply,
So my spirit could grow and mature
As to life in Paradise endure.
Cry not when I keep with death a date
Because your tears would by then be late,
For death already brings the reward
I earned on earth or debt I incurred.
Cry not when I’m gone but grateful be
That another gate opens for me
And I go to unite with my kind,
Leaving a bedevilled earth behind.
The path I’ve gone you will follow too
Because I cannot return to you;
If you spend your time to cry and brood
Then it does none of us any good.
If you must cry while no more I’m here
Then let it be for that which you fear –
If you’ll meet death with a steady mind,
Or what in the beyond you will find.
You may cry too if you should recall
Those pleasures of this life, one and all,
We used to share but which will be missed
Now that I am from earth-life released.
You may in loneliness also cry,
Wishing that your loved one did not die:
But one thing you must with me agree –
Your tears are for you but not for me!
My battle I have already fought
And my freedom on earth I have bought,
I need then no tears from anyone
For the good thing death for me has done.
I have no interest in earth again,
But if you do not your tears restrain
I will not be free to move along
In peace and joy to where I belong.
If too strongly you express your grief
Then I may not get timely relief
From the flesh I wish to leave behind
Since, for love, troubled will be my mind.
I then will feel the decay and pains
Of that discarded mortal remains –
Made unwittingly to suffer thus
By what my loved one in sorrow does.
Though if tears can make discarded flesh
Be given the breath of life afresh
I’ll for your sake take the added years,
But if not you better hold your tears.
If at all there are tears to be shed
This should then be done by me instead –
That you are still in the battlefield
Which is with all sorts of dangers filled.
I should cry that though I’m seeing you
Your eyes cannot likewise see me too,
And although I still communicate
With you, you fail to reciprocate.
Everything in death is well with me
Because while on earth I did not see
This world in any way as my home
But as a place for a time to roam.
I then as a stranger had to live,
Putting in the best that I can give,
So that the earth which to me was let
Be left at death better than I met.
I therefore had lived with men in love,
Storing treasures for myself above,
And also did the Will of my Lord
That in death I have a good reward.
I sought life beyond the earthly sphere
That in death I be no stranger there.
Now that I am where I longed to be
Shed no tears but thank the Lord for me!
