Perhaps this sounds weird, but when I die, I want my remains (scraps is all they are, in my mind) taken out in the middle of the woods and left for the scavengers to consume.
Probably my favorite noise in nature is an excited coyote yipping to her pack when she discovers a truly fragrant bit of roadkill.
She will roll in it.
Stuff herself to the point of bursting.
Puke it up.
Roll in that, then eat it again.
Maybe puke up some for her pups back in the den.
The crows and buzzards and jays will pick the rest of me clean. Worms and bacteria will scour my bones neat and dry.
Along the way, a robin will stop to pick at the maggots, and another coyote will pounce on the robin, scarf, regurgitate, howl, and scarf some more.
A generation will pass, and along comes a plucky ten-year old.
Scabby knees, sweaty face.
His glasses keep slipping down his nose as he grubs through the thickets upon which a suburb has encroached.
He spots a gleaming piece of ivory. What is this? A tooth! Perhaps there is more...
Upon further, furtive, frightened investigation he uncovers first the lower jaw--later the entire skull--of a human being!
Yuck!
Wait--C-O-O-L!
He rushes home and tells his mom (she will call the Sheriff's Department--they in turn, will call The News) while the kid races around the cul-de-sac gathering The Gang to search for more bones.
My verdigris-encrusted remnants are collected by the County coroner's office and shipped off to the lab for dental identification.
The kid is on the local 5:00 o'clock news. He is a HERO! Picture in the paper the next day.
No family members come forward to claim the bones.
The Sheriff gives him the skull!
Awesome.
He'll hang onto that skull for the next ten years before loaning it to his first-year Anatomy professor at college, who "misplaces" it in the permanent collection.
Sometime along the way, the ID tag becomes smeared.
My name fades.
I am tagged and replaced with a numeric counterpart.
The tag falls off.
Finally, I am just The Skull, brittle, yellow. The lower jaw is missing.
I am loaned out to a class of third-graders. They caress me and pass me around. Oohs & Ahs.
Dirty fingers. A booger is scraped in my left eye socket.
The teacher places me on the high shelf above her desk--presumably out of reach. She is wrong, and I slip from the awkward fingers of a 10 year old girl to smash on the hard, hard, floor.
I go, "Crash!"
The little girl starts to cry, but a boy says, "Don't be such a baby! It's just some dumb old skull!"
They will get married at 22.
I am a socializing agent.
Haloed.
Immortal.
Food.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
स्त्रव्बेर्री Festival
I had a great day today with my dogs. The sun was shining. We went to the Strawberry Parade, and I watched the 2nd season of TRUE BLOOD--one of my favorite vampire HBO TV shows with my brother and sister-in-law.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
"Normal Drama"
Saturday, March 20, 2010
"Normal Drama"
Here is an interesting situation where I finally feel like I am knee-deep in “normalcy,” which is to say, that I am caught up in family. Not scary, crazy family, just family-family, and yet it is something of a rollercoaster ride nonetheless.
Most poignantly, this family finds itself enjoying (?) a cycle of life and death. A new baby was brought into the fold last week, while someday soon (we believe) one of the patriarchs is sure to slip away. Elise gave birth to her second son, Julian, and Rita’s step-father, Ross, is riddled with cancer and last night fell down and could not get up.
In between all of this, my mother was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and Rita was in a ski accident and is still hobbling around with a leg-brace.
Tyler is being picked on at school, and Andy just passed his driving test, while Dylan and his girlfriend, Nicole, are on involuntary hiatus because her asshole dad has grounded her from seeing him for the past week.
Rob and I both have cars at the same mechanic’s shop, as the “new” car he bought for Andy has blown a head gasket, and my transmission is getting replaced.
Autumn is a twitter with a new love interest and just marked her 42nd birthday, while I cut my hair and am letting the gray grow in naturally (sigh.)
Last, but not least, the lot of us are smothered in dogs and chickens and sheep, e-i-e-i-Oh!
It’s nice to be back in the fold.
Dan
2:13:22 AM
"Normal Drama"
Here is an interesting situation where I finally feel like I am knee-deep in “normalcy,” which is to say, that I am caught up in family. Not scary, crazy family, just family-family, and yet it is something of a rollercoaster ride nonetheless.
Most poignantly, this family finds itself enjoying (?) a cycle of life and death. A new baby was brought into the fold last week, while someday soon (we believe) one of the patriarchs is sure to slip away. Elise gave birth to her second son, Julian, and Rita’s step-father, Ross, is riddled with cancer and last night fell down and could not get up.
In between all of this, my mother was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and Rita was in a ski accident and is still hobbling around with a leg-brace.
Tyler is being picked on at school, and Andy just passed his driving test, while Dylan and his girlfriend, Nicole, are on involuntary hiatus because her asshole dad has grounded her from seeing him for the past week.
Rob and I both have cars at the same mechanic’s shop, as the “new” car he bought for Andy has blown a head gasket, and my transmission is getting replaced.
Autumn is a twitter with a new love interest and just marked her 42nd birthday, while I cut my hair and am letting the gray grow in naturally (sigh.)
Last, but not least, the lot of us are smothered in dogs and chickens and sheep, e-i-e-i-Oh!
It’s nice to be back in the fold.
Dan
2:13:22 AM
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