Dead Man's Villanelle Poem by Tyler Mason

When I’m dead and still at last
There will be flowers strewn
I’ll be flickering and fading fast

I’ll be ages gone and ages passed
Silent in the fragile noon
When I’m still and dead at last

I’ll be resting in my earthly cast
Blotchy beneath a hopeful moon
I’ll be flickering and fading fast

Pick me a plot in an orchard vast
With the lavender blushing in June
When I’m dead and still at last

With sculpted hills and prairie grass
And oaks that whisper ancient runes
I’ll be flickering and fading fast

When my life is pressed beneath the glass
I’ll have not a care, nor cry, nor croon
When I’m dead and still at last
I’ll be flickering and fading soon