A Resurrection Poem by John Goodman

[Above: Imogen, c. 1888, by Herbert Gustave Schmalz]

by John Goodman

“Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”
– Cymbeline, act IV, scene ii

Unless we place the corpse on ice,

‘til future science sets the price

Of plus ultra; such that when

the Christ returns to earth again,

His eschatological eye will gaze

On folk He has no need to raise.

Unless the Buddha was right to see

In life a circularity.

So dust is just another name

For what was once, will be again:

Dust, dung beetles, kudzu, stones,

Whose life, like yours, is never done.

Unless the trick is not to come

To dust, but to arise therefrom:

The molecules shaken and stirred,

Reconstituted at a word.

So let each golden girl and lad

Arise, O Lord, as Thou hast said.