Member-only story
Puppet Strings from the Great Beyond
Very soon,
life will become a legal transaction
children will cast lots for clothes and cars,
heartbeats will become puffs of dust,
crematorium fire will separate gold from dross,
purification before resurrection,
condensing of 80 years into bottle of ash.
Very soon,
one sibling will make a phone call relaying news from the nursing home.
Another will write a letter to the lawyers, asking for help with probate,
not entirely sure what the word probate means.
A third will ask for a share of the inheritance
and spend it before the ink is dry on the check.
There were other little endings before
but those were little griefs with small deaths.
This is the big end, the grand finale,
when humanity converts to math,
when family conversations are controlled by lawyers,
when solemn men in sharp suits
bury old ladies and smile inwardly
at their good…
