Spreading Ashes
CANADA (PP) - Battling mortality can hammer away at one's spirit, but of course it also makes you think. My response to my battle with aplastic anemia
This was written for a special poetry insert in the Window, New College's
student publication:
Dress me as I came
Into this world,
Dress me in shelter
Love and warmth.
The warmth will surge,
Celebration of existing
Instead of maligned
Sorrow of passing.
Take my rigid form
To burn out
Cold from this shield
And inhale my ashes.
Find a haven in this world
To spread from,
Diffuse in all directions
Covering the globe.
Take me to Avalon;
Let me be Canadian after death
And spread my self
Amongst my feathered little brethren.
The sea and wind will carry
My ashen form through currents
And will visit all the places I didn’t
All the places I will.
The sunrise and sunset
Dress my ethereal form
Within the ribbon leaflets
Of solar angel hair.
The humpbacks swim amongst
Frozen white behemoths,
Bergs from north,
Saline contributors south.
I will contribute to the oceans,
To the coastlines,
Fragments of my earthen container
Returned to the earth of which it came.
I am Adam, we all are Adam.
Clay creations all designed
By Prometheus’ hand
Disciplined by Zeus.
I see this life will be shorter than most.
Maybe shorter,
My body is a failed scarecrow
Assaulted by cocky crows
I am perpetually strong,
Rocking each obstacle
Like an unanchored vessel
In a squalling sea.
I fight.
But the fight will be taken by age.
And my form will be flamed.
Immolation to cremation.