Dead Space

In Tanta, Egypt

Workers found a necropolis when digging to build a new hotel.

The necropolis was nearly five thousand square feet

Of cleanly cut marble bricks.

In Ireland,

Whenever an old skeleton is found during burial,

The gravediggers will dig six feet deeper

Placing the bones beneath the body.

My mother wants to be buried vertically

Five feet below the earth

With an acorn near the surface,

So the oak will grow in fertilized soil.

The standard issue coffin

You and I have to look forward to

Is eighty inches by twenty-five inches

Of your choice of wood.

The largest coffins are built to bear weight

And must be made of hickory.

The smallest coffins

Are six by nine inches.

These coffins are for stillborn babies

And I suppose the type of wood

Doesn’t matter at all.