Bury Me Alive

Promise to bury me alive

not deeply, and only from the neck down

Just a thin layer of rich beautiful soil to pin my body against the earth in a forest that’s far away

and then just let me be

I will be alright

Leave my senses in full bloom so I can witness the world as it passes

Leave my ears unfettered     a home to the conversations of ants and earwigs

the distant thrumming of crickets and birds

Let my eyes fill in the fall with trundling pine needles

in the winter with the purest of snow

in the spring with cottonwood fuzz

And in the fall again, more pine needles

the seasons catching themselves

 

Between your pretty thumb and a crooked forefinger clasp my chin

and pull down my jaw to open my mouth 

and please

Please for the love of god

drop that last kiss on my lips so I forever have the taste of you

and then just let me be without worry, don’t worry about me

 

And my mouth can become a home to small rodents and the dirt they displace

and the grains they bring to feed their young

that they tuck away in my teeth

 

Let the forest pass its years on my chest

reaching through my skin and my bones and

replacing one intricate web of veins with a more natural network of root and mycelia   

 

Let my body become the soil and just stop

 

and leave me be

I will close my eyes on my own

my ears on my own

my mouth

 

and go away knowing I’ve done something good

and at last done something really, really well

giving thanks to you 

that you buried me alive

that you buried me in the shallows