INHERITANCE

• To the ancient dead in our museums


• Those who loved and outlived you honoured you
• in the way they said goodbye: they closed your eyes
• then buried you as treasure, or sealed your cinders
• in precious pots planted into the earth,
• or floated your ashes like leaves on a sacred river,
• or magicked you into mummies with natron and linen,
• or pickled you in peat. Beyond their reach,
• a lone mountain traveller coffined in ice,
• whole towns smothered by volcanic ash or mud.


• Welcome back to the light. Our gaze is not
• unfeeling: it is the custom now to examine
• and x-ray our friends post mortem, cherish
• their keepsakes. Seeds of ourselves, to bring to life
• your stories is our way of honouring you.

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