"What does reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens
when
yer life has reached it's end.
They comb yer hair and wash
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 when
yore planted 'neatha mound.
Them clods melt down, just like
yer box,
and you who is inside,
and then yore just beginnin'
on
yer transformation ride.
In awhile, the grass'll grow
upon yer rendered mound,
'til someday on yer moldered
grave
a lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander
by,
and gaze upon this flower,
that once was you but now's
become
your vegetative bower.
The posey that the hoss done
ate
up, with his other feed,
makes bone, and fat, and muscle,
essential to the steed.
But some is left that he cain'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 on reincarnation
of life, and death, and such.
I come away concludin': Slim,
you ain't changed all that much."