Thomas Quentin Sims - to the tree

when i'm done
with this ash and dust
wrap me in the quilt
my mother and my father's mother
sewed together
put my body in a simple
pine box if a box you must
this should be enough
to keep the carnivores
from clawing at the earth
but there in the ground
which covers my body
plant a young oak tree
so that when i'm done and done
more dust than bone
what's left will nourish
the tree as it grows
and when you visit
year after year to the tree
think of your child and your brother
becoming the air that you breathe
a way of returning
all that you gave to me

(march 2010, new orleans, la, usa)

Thomas Quentin Sims

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-tree/