after you die
you’ll be reborn
in the spotlight of memory
and a chiseler will double check
his sketch before grinding out
your letters and numbers
and I'll remember white teeth
and a pile of vermillion hair
greeting me at your front door
as a bobcat scoops
your casket sways
the dirt is pounded smooth
someone mentions you
a month later an Austrian
accent tickles my thoughts
by then spores of moss
have discovered
the headstone’s grooves
closet-cleaning I find a box
pictures of you at the lake
boyfriend wine white teeth
your marker settles
leans its green script
towards the brown earth
twenty sixth-gear years
I think of calling you
the Dodgers just won
winters go by
followed by spring rains
weeds splinter your name
one day I try to recall
the smell of your bedroom
old world rose and heather?
endless seasons of weather
till another presence
is erased from the earth
who will know
there was a you
in 100 500 1,000 years?
mountain to dust
dust to mountain