<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Earth to Earth </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">My sister’s grandson was bored</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at his first funeral. An urn with ashes. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A box in a marble wall. Antiseptic </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and ecological. Maybe not that ecological.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Read somewhere that burning bodies</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">requires fossil fuels, releases<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">noxious chemicals into the air.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Give me an old-fashioned </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Jewish funeral and burial.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The ripping of a black ribbon </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">over the heart, the body in a </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">simple box, waiting. Shovels </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in hand, muscles straining, clods of </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">earth dropping down, hitting <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">wood with a thud, tears</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and maybe a stray flower </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">following.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I’ll be laid to rest at the green <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">cemetery. Fernwood. Had the choice</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of a pine box, a basket or a shroud. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Whatever is the breathing “I” in me </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">will be gone. I know I won’t be in that </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">body any more, but my body still says</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“No!” to the possibility of bugs </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and worms crawling over it. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">At least a pinebox is closed. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I also chose a plot next to a </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">lovely woman from the synagogue</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a rabbi <i class="">and</i> a doctor.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Kind of reassuring to have </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">my bases covered, just in case. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Really wanted to be buried under </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a tree, but the Orthodox </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">got the better section. I’m not sure</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">how that happened but I don’t like it.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I’m not going to start keeping Kosher</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">or sit on the other side of a barrier</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at this late date. At least it’s not </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">behind the men any more but </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">it’s still not equal, so that’s that. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">My plot is down a steep incline</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and I almost swooned descending</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to check it out but I suppose I won’t</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">have to worry about that later. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Most of my peers will be gone by then</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and my family won’t be stopping </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">by often. I’ll have to tell my daughter</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to wear sensible shoes.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Papers in hand with my new address, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Plot # 51, I felt great that I could finally say </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I’m a proud homeowner in Marin County </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">until I learned that, no, I don’t own the plot,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">it’s only on lease to me. One more lesson </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in humility and gratitude. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I know I’ll become atoms and energy,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">already getting shorter each year, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">three inches gone and bones crumbling</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">downwards toward the Mother. She’ll</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">welcome me although she can’t </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">promise a soft landing, whispers to me</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">through cracked lips, <i class="">Let’s hope it rains,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">God knows California needs some</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">good downpours</i>. When no one was looking </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I lay my deeply creased cheek down on her</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">scarred surface and felt right at home. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>– Linda Blachman</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>