A Human Being

by Marie Sheppard Williams 
  
is burning. It is 
me. My body is
pretty much dead
but
      the spirit is
alive and very well.

	*

A man
reads over my
funeral pyre.
I am laughing, and
when he hears
my laughter he
laughs too he
breaks down into
total laughter soon
everyone is laugh-
ing

	*					

	After
a while I am
completely ash—
but the ash
that is me
keeps laughing.

© 2008 by Marie Sheppard Williams. All rights reserved.
Marie Sheppard Williams is a life-long resident of Minnesota. She has won many awards for her writing, including two Pushcart prizes. She is the owner of an enormous orange cat named Albert Einstein.