Elemental Death

 

I am not convinced by those who embrace
A fiery end, gray ashes, and an urn.

Some find the licking flames a restful place

To lay their body in, and choose to burn.

I have a terror of those flames. I feel
The coolness of the earth a better choice.
Earth to earth, they murmur, and soil to soil.
Buried blood has sometimes had a voice.

Heaving waves have stolen many a corpse,
And many a willing body has leapt
To float and then descend beneath the oars.
And with Ophelia wash their way to death.

Why drown? Why burn? Why suffocate in dirt?
I’ve changed my mind – I want to die in air.
The wind will loose my linen winding shirt
And swirl its tender fingers through my hair.

July 11, 2026

Bayboro, NC