Classic Poem

Across it spreads the jungle. Upon it thick spurge grows.
There in broad daylight the owls cry out and demon women open
their mouths wide. The cremation fires glow and clouds
of smoke cover that fearful burning ground. Hot, white
ashes on the earth littered with bones are quenched by tears
of lovers, weeping, their hearts full of longing.
It has seen the back of every human being, all the people
living in this world as they go away,
but no one has ever seen it turn its back and go away.