My state allows us to compost human remains
I imagine a flower
growing from your mouth

violet or weed? who cares really—

be a place for bones to meet
& mingle with roots of a big-leaf maple

better than being tossed

into the sea—
although that also has rewards.

good companions, in the ocean.
smart, too.

only a whale finds its way home by singing.

Selected by Sara Clancy
Image credit:Photo by Emily Goodhart
Trish Saunders

Trish Saunders' poems have appeared in Chiron Review, Gargoyle, Book of Matches, The American Journal of Poetry, Off The Coast Literary Magazine, Main Street Rag, Four Feathers, here in Open Arts Forum, and many others. She lives in Seattle.