or few, or less than
should be expected,
or a handful, or as much
as a normal living
human hand—less
than three and a half
inches wide—could
hold on average,
in relatively good
health, before arthritis,
before skin returns
to lizard state,
before a bouquet
of tar and citrus
mouth vapors crowd
the room, and assuming
this regret decreases
statistically later
when full-grown
children are available
to administer papers,
placing a body officially
somewhere else
as tradition dictates
genetics handle denial
unspooling in stages
until acceptance
or sometimes it is said
to happen all at once
sped up like a time-
lapse film of a sun-
flower blooming,
bloomed, then bent,
earthworms anxious
to perform their
handiwork in familiar
wavering light, light
like warmth is sometimes
described or felt
by someone who might
still remember how
to feel to begin with.