Expired

Our favorite euphemism for patient death is "expire" - suggesting people become no longer suitable for use after the printed date, after which they mold, curdle, become rancid, dessicated. I always think of a person exhaling out that one last breath of air, after which they lie motionless. Without commontion, emotion, serene - "expire", unlike "death" which is fettered with morbid connotations, of treachery, violence, grief, is more like the natural course of things. I have never seen anyone die, but this is how I imagine them to do so in the hospital, so many of the time - expectedly, quietly, into the night, on this - their expiration date.