Firewood

Firewood

Helsinki and Varanasi.
Here for the sauna, there
For the cremations.
The same firewood,
Split and stacked.
Someone cut them
Down for this purpose,
Bucked the logs up,
Let the pieces season
Through the seasons
For different reasons.
The living sweating.
The dead getting
Incinerated into ash.
Here, the living cold
Plunge into the ocean.
There, the dead are
Spread on the river.
When you see wood
Stacked liked this,
You know you aren’t
Far from fire.
If you don’t see it,
You aren’t far
From fire either.