We Bury
Upright, but
no less savage
than our predecessors.
Hunting, gathering, remaking
ourselves.
A difference
owing nothing to science
nothing to cells, bones, tissue,
but to memory
and honor.
She buries him.
A father she knew
and fears
remembering.
He buries them.
Friends he loved
and will see
another day.
They bury them.
Children lost
to circumstances beyond
anyone’s control.
I bury her.
A friend
a lover
a confidante
a muse.
Knowing that I never knew her
as she deserved
to be known.
Valued,
Memorialized,
Remembered,
by laying them to rest.
We bury.
This piece was prompted by a podcast discussing the variety of ways in which homo sapiens differentiates itself from other homo variants such as homo erectus, and homo neandertahlensis and how we humans differentiate ourselves from the other hominids here on Earth. The most poignant point of discussion, in my opinion, was about the reverence which homo sapiens shows its dead. We not only grieve, but we remember those who came before and in due turn, we care for and memorialize our dead through ceremony.
In short, we bury.
American writer
