An urban cemetery, a mummified squirrel and serene deer near a street that riots.

 

Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery

 
I.
Two deer breathe calm inside gates of iron
Among the headstones, underneath trees
Of an urban cemetery, in Minneapolis
On Lake Street, where sirons, where the riots
 
II.
Nearby, a woman finds a squirrel clutching a branch
Teeth bared, mummified. From shovel to bag
Into another bag, into the alleyway trash
And barely aware, like the deer, we lay under trees
 
III.
We talk of cysts in the uterus
Women’s bodies, hysterectomies
Where to be buried, or buried at all
When the earth is full in the belly
 
IV.
We hear there’s an option to mix your ashes
With the free soil from the city compost
And you are planted with trees
In parks with children and lovers
 
V.
But who wouldn’t want a stone
Not cut and polished, nor your name in seriphs
But a rock thrown skyward in time by a trunk
Holding yourself over the Lake Street calm?
 
VI.
Caught in the woody clutch of an oak
To be forgotten within a generation by the internet
With a legacy hanging weighty over the souls
The deer, and bottles of Thunderbird