does it hurt (20170121)

Posted on by crow

bottles are clearly marked
return for deposit

once the silicone and titanium
formaldehyde and mortician’s wax
has seeped out of us
when we are no longer anything
but mulch
is that our recycling

or does the soul
–if it even exists–
does the soul undergo
some other process
some forge that burns off memories
and with them grief and guilt

does it hurt

Published by crow

I'm a writer and a dabbler. I live in Washington.

12 thoughts on “does it hurt (20170121)”

  1. I love this! I’ve often questioned if our souls exist in the way we learn from our religion. Do we leave our body enlightened or do we suffer from the dark memories we can’t let go? Your poem reminds me of Seneca, a Roman philosopher who wrote how our souls are driven by four emotions: pleasure, pain, desire, and fear. Anyway, sorry for this rambling response! I just found your words philosophical and fascinating.

    1. I love that philosophy. You can distill it further into a a very basic reading of Freudianism, where every impulse is either a desire to join with something or to separate from it. I figured every emotional state and every act come out of that basic binary position.

      Thanks for writing back! I love our little talks.

  2. steam rises from my barcode as
    the heat rises
    my flesh bursting into flames
    bony fragments sifted from ash
    create one tiny pixel
    in the greater QR code

    1. Sheldon, my friend, how are you? I’ve been peeking in at your site.

      the worms
      they always return
      to the earth
      unless
      the early bird
      catches them

  5. Wow. This really choked me up. By the time I got to the profound last line, I was fighting back tears.

    Thank you for writing and sharing this.

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