I want my gravestone
to be a stepping stone
or a bench
or a kid’s slide
or anything other
than a waste of space

People will always keep dying
but the earth isn’t getting any bigger
and if we keep digging graves
one day the whole planet will be full of them

Years later earth will be a tourist attraction
a ball of dirt covered in headstones
orbiting the sun for our forever
like a pin cushion
in a planet model

I don’t want to be just another dead body
I want my bones to be carved into tools
or trinkets
and I want my skull to be
a ceremonial bowl
used to anoint future generations
into adulthood

I don’t want to go to waste.