Come with me, Zachary

Into the depths of the abyss

Into the darkness of the woods

Let us walk as brothers

For I have not forgotten that I was once like you

You and I are of the same flesh and of the same dirt

From dust we have come and from dust we shall go

And we share the same ultimate destiny

With all the same shames

Let us rest in the shade, Zachary

And set our tent up amid gravestones

Where the dead sleep silently and wait for us

Then we shall know how dead we are

And dance together in a melancholy thanatopsis

I will say nothing, as all words vanish as soon as they are said

They are preserved only in memory, and memory passed away into oblivion

Into the dark void to which we all go

Let us play games together, Zachary

As brothers often do

Raise a glass to the sacred art of merriment and drink away our sorrows

And then when you ask me how I find peace in spite of it all I will tell you

You will not believe me and I will not ask you to

Just know that I will always love you

Your shortcomings are invisible to me

I will give you no labels, not even enemy

Even though we fight

For your only label is your name, Zachary

So it was, and so it always shall be

And all your works, who shall remember them?

When your have stopped breathing

Only your name will be carved on your stone

And a few short words up to your discretion

All your life will be summed up in this

Your family will remember you, for a time

Then they, too, shall pass away

All people will have to remember you by is your name

And by your lasting words

Should you die before you choose them

I will carve your final inscription for you, and all shall know who you were

They shall know the most important thing about you

"Here lies Zachary, and I loved him like a brother"