On death

Michael Casey

school children walk by
some stare
some keep walking
some adults stare too
with handkerchiefs
over their nose
a woman
sits on the pavement
beside
wails
and pounds her fists
on pavement
flies all over
it like made of wax
no jaw
intestines poured
out of the stomach
the penis in the air
it won’t matter then to me but now
I don’t want in death to be a
public obscenity like this

Fonte (v. 13-21; em port.): Lifton, RJ. 1989 [1987]. O futuro da imortalidade. SP, Trajetória Cultural. Poema publicado em livro em 1972.