The Earth Will Know Your Flesh Poem by Patti Masterman

The earth will know your flesh,
Embrace your marrow’s last memory of bone
More encompassing than any lover.

You were received from earth's body,
As much her child as sky’s; even more perhaps
When you are no longer breathing.

Into raw earth, you will change incomprehensibly
As incorporeal as starlight itself,
And nameless as shadows in moonlight.

Just as daylight dies, you disappear
Down into the deep foundry of death;
Swallowing darkness, in bowels of earth again.