Reincarnation
as the Cowboy Poet sees it:

"What does reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair and warsh yer neck,
and clean yer fingernails,
and lay you in a padded box
Away from life's travails.
* "The box and you goes in a hole
That's been dug in the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted 'neath a mound.
The clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside,
And then yore just beginning on
Yer transformation ride.
* "In a while the grass'll grow
Upon yer rendered mound,
"Till some day on yer moldred grave
A lonely flower's found.
And say a hoss should wander by
and graze upon this flower,
That once was you, but now's become
Yer vegetative bower.
* "The posy that the hoss done ate
Up with it's other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed.
But some is left that he can't use,
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground -
This thing, that once was you.
* "Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this on the ground.
And I ponders, and I wonders at
This object that I found.
And I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life, and death, and such.
And I come away concludin': Slim,
You ain't changed, all that much.
Wallace McRay"

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