BURY ME STANDING (after “Lady Lazuras” by Sylvia Plath – with thanks to Gwenaëlle Aubry)
Now I’ve gone and done it once again In a trio of decades, this one’s my number three It’s a song I sing a year out of every ten And the peanut-munching crowd shoves in to see
Yes, gentlemen and ladies Step up for the big striptease Farewell flesh, hello Hades Take my hand, take me please
The first time it happened I was ten The second time I meant, meant not to come back at all Oh, that artful event was no accident Rocked shut in a seashell, you know I still heard the call
But with the third time a charm, I bought the farm And now they have me pushing daisies Though ever lyrical, this two-time miracle Is done rising like a Lazarus lady
Out of the ash I once rose with red hair A smiling woman, oh, I ate men like air And like the cat, I had nine times to die But by the tenth, you know my end was nigh
Now the food the grave cave ate will be at home on me And the brood left to brave their fate will surely hate my memory
Yes, gentlemen and ladies If you have my disease Don’t go making babies Get a dog or adopt some trees
And do bury me standing I lived too long on my knees Farewell flesh, hello Hades Take my hand, take me please
