Ever After

Whatever construction we put on
the mortification of the flesh by death,
whatever the happy-clappy euphemisms
we choose to shroud its devastation with,

there are few enough consoling glosses
to be put on a body scrapped in
tamped-down clay, trampled underfoot,
so reduced in means as to be human

infill, biodegrading fast, depreciation
setting in unless disposed of smartly.
We joke about it all, fall back
on bad puns, black humour,

wanting to sidestep negative
insinuations, stay true to the living
body, fend off morbidity, sublimate
our dread, stuff the unsettling

dead back into their crumbling boxes,
keep the snuff of their rancid dust from
getting up our noses, install granite
headstones to pin them firmly down.

Copyright © 2008 Dennis O'Driscoll All rights reserved
from Reality Check
Copper Canyon Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission