The Cosmic Heart

A pious colleague told me
some frumme Jews have holes
drilled in their coffins to
share their new houses

with worms.  Whatever's built
comes down--It is not
seemly for the believer
to imagine otherwise--

I think this while listening
to dreadful piped-in music
in a room of stacked vaults.
A newly chiseled date

on my friend's tomb--He would
have chosen a simple burial
in a box with holes--You gotta
get me outta here--Just kidding--

If life is good, death is
good as well; faith's better:
the cosmic heart still beats
untouched by putrefaction.


First published in
The New Laurel Review xxvi