The Man With The Corpse On His Back

Dad 8.26.26-12.16.71

(Mixed Media art by Tara Shannon)

When you die to the old life
you must bury it well
or you'll stumble on
with the corpse of your old self
strapped to your back.

Bury it well and do your grieving.
Set right what can be set right
with those you hurt
and those who hurt you.
Give up the souls you've stolen.
Reclaim what was stolen from you.
Then walk on and don't look back.

Others will dig up your corpse.
Not only enemies and abandoned lovers
but your very best friends.
They'll exhume your bag of bones
and lash it to your shoulders
to prove you haven't changed.
You'll be dragged, down and back.
You'll need a second wake,
a second burial.

The grave-robbers will come for you
again and again
to chain you to your dead self
until you are changed so utterly
you can only be seen
by those who have changed their eyes.
You'll vanish into the sunlit spaces
where those who cling
to the ghost of what you were
can't find you anymore.

Robert Moss, The Man with a Corpse on His Back