Ask Baba Yaga: How Can I Make Peace With Death?

Transcript after the jump.

Dear Baba Yaga,

I find myself fixated on fear of my death lately. It isn’t nonexistence itself that scares me; I fear facing my end staring into a countdown clock that is running low. I don’t want this to get in the way of experiencing my life. How can I make peace with the coming of my cessation?

BABA YAGA:

Always ; yr eyes shift to the clock while the bread is baking. How dark it is in the oven, & fragrant is yr house. You put yr hands in yr face & you breathe in deep, & you look out the window. The bread will be done soonly, so soon, & what will it taste like when you eat it all? In yr heart & lungs is the coming of it, is the ticking of the clock. & why should it be otherwise, should you walk from yr house & let the bread burn?

Taisia Kitaiskaia is a poet, writer, and Michener Center for Writers fellow. She’s taking questions on behalf of Baba Yaga at [email protected].