3 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 17 minutes ago by RiverNotch.)
Tower of Silence
Once the last breath has left the lungs, the body
ceases to be this pure and precious thing:
from earth, water, and especially fire
it must be separated. Hence this tower,
open to the skies and thus to vultures
who'll peck at the skin and strip the bones of flesh,
helping the human caretakers keep themselves
as clean as the elements they help preserve.
Eventually what spills out and what's left over
is mingled in caustic lime, the soupy mixture
passed through hundreds of layers of sand and coal
until whatever's left is clear enough
to let flow into a river or the sea,
for even the dead can grow, all things unclean
when to the happy light of the sun and moon
exposed for long enough becoming bleached.
Once the last breath has left the lungs, the body
ceases to be this pure and precious thing:
from earth, water, and especially fire
it must be separated. Hence this tower,
open to the skies and thus to vultures
who'll peck at the skin and strip the bones of flesh,
helping the human caretakers keep themselves
as clean as the elements they help preserve.
Eventually what spills out and what's left over
is mingled in caustic lime, the soupy mixture
passed through hundreds of layers of sand and coal
until whatever's left is clear enough
to let flow into a river or the sea,
for even the dead can grow, all things unclean
when to the happy light of the sun and moon
exposed for long enough becoming bleached.