Living Ancients
For those of us young
healthy
we will face the mourning of our elders.
Bury them beneath
the earth.
And for those of us
who believe the living
ever-live
we will stand by the graves of our teachers
and know that we
like those we've buried
are living ancients.
Copyright Credit: Matthew Shenoda, "Living Ancients" from Somewhere Else. Copyright © 2005 by Matthew Shenoda. Reprinted by permission of Coffee House Press, www.coffeehousepress.org.
Source: Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation (Viking Press, 2015)