I planted a cherry tree

Dug a hole in the yard and cursed

Every rock the shovel hit

I would reach into the hole

To pull it out

Digging my fingers

Into the dirt underneath it

Half hoping it wasn’t a rock

This time maybe, but a treasure

And I had found the spot

Someone always meant to come back to

Like the stories we read as children

We spent our childhood following maps

Marking off careful paces

Looking for landmarks.

She wanted no grave, no stone or marker,

Nothing to come back to and no way to get lost

“Just give my body to science and

Let me help someone else,” she said.

So now she is gone

And now she is everywhere,

And like those pirates in the moonlight

We take only what we can carry

Into the night and bury the rest

Like a cherry tree just planted

Casting its leafy shadow on the grass

Like it’s always been here.