Reincarnation

Years ago at a time my wife Rita and I were visting my son, Bob and his wife Melissa in Mountain View, Arkansas, I heard Glenn Ohrlin, recite the following poem:

Reincarnation
"What is reincarnation? a cowboy asked his friend.
"Well, it starts," his old pal tells him, "when your life comes to an end".
They wash your neck and comb your hair and clean your fingernails.
Then they stick you in a padded box, away from life's travails.
Now the box and you goes in the hole that's been dug in the ground,
And reincarnation starts, my friend, when they plant you neath that mound.
The clods melt down, as does the box, and you who are inside,
And that's when you're beginning your transformation ride.
And in a while, the grass will grow upon that rendered mound,
Until someday a upon that spot, a lonely flower is found.
And then a horse might wander by and graze upon that flower That once was you and's now become your vegetative bower,
Well, the flower that horse done ate, along with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle essential to this steed.
But there's a part that he can't use and so it passes through,
And there it lies upon the ground, this thing that once was you.
And if by chance I happened by and see this on the ground,
I'll stop a while and ponder on this object I have found.
And I'll think about reincarnation, and life and death and such, And I'll go away concludin', "Heck, you ain't changed that much!"

As told by Glenn Ohrlin