Spontaneous Combustion

(from 1979)

.

When our skin

grows thin

and our eyes

have finally dimmed

we’ll blow on that

charred piece of coal

(the one that never cooled)

until it catches fire again.

We’ll crawl inside

and melt cold bones

into an alabaster stone

and there we’ll carve

our epitaph:

Never Say Die.

.

(c) 1979, 2015  Betty Hayes Albright

.

(re-posted from 2011)