{"id":2502,"date":"2020-05-19T19:18:21","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T01:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=2502"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:08","slug":"we-store-our-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2020\/05\/19\/we-store-our-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"We store our dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We store our dead<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nin little cubes
\nstacked on top of one another
\nin the cold<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nthen put them on display
\nweeping widows say
\nyou never looked so good<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nin a box
\nand shove them
\nin a hole<\/p>\n

Lawyer man’s got my wishes
\nchuck me upon a funeral pyre
\nI don’t need no formaldehyde
\nthis shell doesn’t need to be preserved<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nsix feet under
\ntaking up valuable space
\nlet me rot<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\neven though we know we’ll be forgot
\nwrap me in some muslin
\nlet the worms have their feast<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nbut they are biodegradable
\nlet them decompose
\nand feed the soil<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nin an overpriced box
\nit’s not efficient
\nand prevents natural decomposition<\/p>\n

We store our dead
\nwhat the hell for?
\nAre we going to need them later?<\/p>\n

Let me become plant food
\nDon’t pickle me
\nI don’t need to be preserved
\nDon’t paint me
\nI look fine as I am<\/p>\n

Don’t put me on display
\nPhotos show a better view of me<\/p>\n

wrap me in cotton, naked
\ndrop me in a fire
\nI don’t need this skin no more<\/p>\n

Build a bench
\nplant a tree
\ngive them a little marker
\nmaybe someone will remember me<\/p>\n

Lawyer man’s got my wishes
\nchuck me upon a funeral pyre
\nI don’t need no formaldehyde
\nthis shell doesn’t need to be preserved<\/p>\n

Let the ashes be free
\nreturn me to the universe
\nAin’t nobody gonna be there
\nfor my last day<\/p>\n

Make me into Soylent Green
\nI don’t care
\nI’m not here
\nJust don’t have me take up unnecessary space<\/p>\n

Don’t store me in no box
\nI don’t need preserving
\ndon’t bury me six feet deep
\nI’ll have already faced my mortality<\/p>\n

chuck me upon a funeral pyre
\nlawyer man’s already been paid
\nI don’t need a storage box
\nthe flame’s good enough for me<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[112,285],"class_list":["post-2502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-death","tag-poetry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3665,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions\/3665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}