For the Gravesite

This is the place. 
It is both goodbye and homecoming 
for mortals born of stardust
and breath from heaven. 
The stillness is 
both foreign and familiar.

This is the place 
we will come to remember, 
we will mean to visit more often. 
It will cause us to wonder 
about the sounds and smells 
beneath our feet.

This is the place 
that writes the death of our person 
into the history of this world 
with specific coordinates, 
even more accurate as time melts
boundaries between creature and creation.

This is the place 
reserved to honor a life that still lives 
in us, blowing like windy
memories from our mouths 
just often enough to help 
our unbelief to glimpse death rising.

From Speak It Plain (Fortress Press, Fall 2020)