Reincarnation

a cowboy poem by Wallace McCrae

What is reincarnation, a cowboy asked his friend? His friend replied,
"well son it's what happens when your life has reached it's end.

You see, they comb your hair and they wash your neck and they clean your fingernails,
and they lay you down in a padded box, far away from life's travails.

Now the box and you goes in a hole that's been dug into the ground,
and reincarnation starts in when you're planted beneath the mound.

You see the box melts down just like the clods, and you who is inside,
and then you're just beginning on your transformation ride.

Well in a while some rain's gonna come and fall upon the ground,
'til one day on your lonely little grave, a little flower will be found.

And say, a hoss shall wander by and graze upon this flower,
that once was you, but now has become a vegetative bower.

That little flower that the hoss done ate up with all his other feed,
becomes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed.

Of course some is consumed that he can't use and so it passes through and finally it lays there on the ground,
this thing that once was you.

And then say that I should wander by and gaze upon the ground,
and wonder and ponder on this object that I've found.

Well it sure makes me think of reincarnation, of life and death and such,
and I ride away concluding Slim you ain't changed all that much!

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