We are fighting fighting fighting that
Where there was death there may be Life!²
Each for their coffin makes a Cocoon:³
We find Nourishment in death.⁴
Our life is now a death to us, so
We’ll mold it and we’ll hold it ‘til we’re Born:⁵
Our ghost re-gifts Flesh & Blood—
Our flesh & blood—re-gift our Children.⁶
Suture us back together to make
Something more Vaguely Eternal—⁷
To the Seasonal Eternity of death—
We sough off the rumor of mortality—⁸
One short sleep past—we Wake Eternally:⁹
Free on Both Sides of the grave.¹⁰
¹ Jidi Majia tr. Denis Mair, The Other Way
² Marianne Moore, In Distrust of Merits
³ Joseph Jefferson, Immortality
⁴ Robert Bly, A Home in Dark Grass
⁵ Larry & Maggie Lee, My Life
⁶ Danez Smith, Dear White America
⁷ Erika Meitner, Eternal Return II
⁸ Allen Tate, Ode to the Confederate Dead
⁹ John Donne, Death
¹⁰ Terrance Hayes, Mule Hour