MEMORIES:BON VOYAGE

BON VOYAGE

Three burials in three months:

We socialize over your funeral coffee.

Sisters, you have left the party early,

Set your atom particles swirling

And abandoned your good books,

Flower gardens and canoe trips,

Spinning off children, husbands and pets.

And so I plan the mode of my departure:

Not to be draped in black tapestry

Inscribed with a white six-pointed star,

Or canopied in satin spattered by rainbows

Sifted through stained glass windows,

But taking a long view of the memorial

Service through the wrong end of a telescope.

My bones already oxidized and glowing,

I will pinwheel into Van Gogh’s Starry Night,

Hitching a ride to the nearest galaxy.

The coral shells I leave behind

Will fertilize another crop of beans

Or drift in sun-filtering mists

Onto the fossil seas of the White Mountains.