Onto the next one

In response to a blog post from a fellow writer (on my imuafilm blogroll under Poetic MindState), I want to ‘write back’ on the same theme.  I admire the sincerity of the post and the emotional honesty it took to express the pain this author feels, about life and death, and some heartbreak and disillusionment thrown in, for good measure.

http://tjefferson85.com/2009/12/11/after-death

So here is my first draft response to his poem, “After Death.”

Post-Mortem Memorandum

When it’s over,

said and done,

I want to be laid to rest in a

dress

and some pretty shoes

throw a flower in

or a bouquet of wildflowers

wrapped in a strand of horsehair

These things I want to remember.

Take me up to heaven on

a great big clipper ship

a fast ride away from here

with its poverty and barefooted silent

shuffling woman I haven’t seen for months

And yet, that doesn’t mean anything.

Earth can be hell frozen over

if there is such a thing

it feels like we are

about to find out

I want to find out

what was that for?

That land of loss and pain and suffering

more than enough

for all

yet carried by a few.

The earth, behind, and

the thought of heaven

ahead,

in the ground of this

place we now walk on.

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