The Luxury of Being Buried

In America,

It’s a luxury

To be buried.

Morticians are weeping.

Keepers of the gravestones

Can’t keep their summer homes.

Will we weep for them?

Will they?

For US?????

For we

Are those

Who can’t bury

Our dead.

Meanwhile....

The cremation chambers

Have waiting lines.

So many ashes

You could cover the earth

A thousand times.

What once

Was a right of passage

To honor the dead,

Now,

Is reserved

For the rich

Instead.

Iced trailers

Full of friends,

Family

Hold cold

Their souls

While they wait

To be buried

Burned

Or unclaimed.

Living in days of plague

America goes back to its native ways,

Making mounds

Of flesh

In the public parks of our cities

No less.