Refusal of the Four Elements to Accept Our Dead One day the earth suddenly refused To accept any more of our dead Undertakers attacked the ground with jackhammers But even if they managed to dig a grave The earth coughed the coffin back up On the coast they tried sea burials But the sea also refused them No weight could make the coffins sink They tried chaining them down To rings screwed into the rocky seabed But the links groaned and broke And the coffins floated back up To drift aimlessly like flotillas Whose crews were butchered by pirates It was thought Well of course cremation But the bodies wouldn’t burn Though it would be more accurate to say that Fire didn’t want them either The flames just licked at them a little Like a dog too sick to eat Nor did the bodies rot As if the air had lost interest In doing commerce with the flesh This was a blessing They didn’t even need embalming But it confirmed that all four elements Had decided to no longer accept our dead There was no choice but to set coffins on biers Not only in cemeteries but in parks Walking through the woods with friends One might stumble upon one standing there Hushing all talk and laughter Though more and more families decided They wanted to keep their dead nearer And so set the biers up in their back yards Between the barbecue grill And the badminton net And because the bodies were incorruptible Some decided against coffins And instead placed them in glass sarcophagi Where they lay regally Their lifelike hands clasped Like those waxen saints in cathedrals Who smile softly in snow drifts of prayer petitions And children who might never have really believed The great-grandparents they were shown In albums spread across their grandparents’ laps Had actually ever existed Approached them slowly now With the high soundless steps of deer As if they were only sleeping As if they might suddenly Open their eyes
A whole new dimension to July 4th get togethers!