A raging wind roared through my ribs
scourging all my flesh away
polishing my weary bones
where my weary body lay

Strange the storm that felled me there,
thunder old as fossil tears;
stranger still the lightning bugs
ticking off my restless years

Night illuminates my corpse
shedding all its tattered scars,
gazing sightless at the moon
wondering at the endless stars

Thistles bloom beside my skull
once where purple dreams took root,
tinsel glints between my toes
where now the magpie hides his loot

Peace has come to me at last,
as fresh as salt and sand and sea
Long dead seeds begin to grow—
green as grass they cover me