ETERNAL ME BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON

WHAT an exceeding rest 'twill be

When I can leave off being Me!

To think of it! -- at last be rid

Of all the things I ever did!


Done with the varying distress

Of retroactive consciousness!

Set free to feel the joy unknown

Of Life and Love beyond my own!


Why should I long to have John Smith

Eternally to struggle with?

I'm John -- but somehow cherubim

Seem quite incongruous with him.


It would not seem so queer to dwell

Eternally John Smith in Hell.

To be one man forever seems

Most fit in purgatorial dreams.


But Heaven! Rest and Power and Peace

Must surely mean the soul's release

From this small labeled entity --

This passing limitation -- Me!