A Great Man

The land took him back

Without ceremony.

Crickets drummed

And the torrid blue weighed in

Like the lens of a giant telescope.

Black birds hovered

Like mechanical Luftwaffe.

Having long ago witnessed

His own death,

He had come to accept

That the world would not

Go on without  him.

It said as much

On his headstone.

The guests drank cold beer

To snake off the pounding sun.

An old man watched  solemnly

As a child tore into a piñata

With a claw hammer.

A police horse passed wind

And his mother spoke

Of how he was buried in a bathtub

Because it was the only thing

Hard enough to hold him.