Palm Sunday Valentine

I would like to be of use to the dead
who of course go on being quite alive
and whom we accompany
and who accompany us
(let’s stop pretending)
in and out of matter
in and out of mother we cry
I want a home birth
though this is not my home
but the so-called dead
with their characteristic patience
clearly see what we here
need to accomplish and can
only accomplish here
and will tell us if we ask
though we’ve forgotten how
on this strange-familiar star.