Into The Fire Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Have you watched a coffin at the crematorium
Slide through the curtains, into the unknown?
It is like seeing a birth in reverse

My son entered the world in pain
He left it in pain

This goes beyond suffering
A parcel of precious flesh
Melted down like tallow
A puddle becoming air

It took him three hours to be born
It took him 3 hours to burn

His ashes weighed seven pounds
One pound less than his birth weight

If there were no swans, snow would cover the earth
If there was no birth, death would be a black tulip
Blooming in Saturn's realm

Holding his ashes in that tiny box
That mini coffin, was like gripping
A baby of knives, that stabbed the heart
Stabbed the heart and twisted