My Compost Bin

Compost?
Lowliest of all earth:
Human refuse and waste,
Leftovers and scraps.
The unwanted, the unused,
The disgusting and the dying. 
Fuzzy and molding.

All forgotten
A stinking pile of mess and chaos
Decaying

Shreds of last year’s bills,
Cardboard moving boxes,
A tax ID, some newspaper clippings
(warnings in the 80s of a freezing globe;
in the 2000s, warnings of a burning one),
Grandpa’s high school graduation program,
Wartime paraphernalia,
Cousin Ruthmary’s missionary newsletters
Of days spent in the wilds of Peru
(rainforests now rapidly disappearing).
Shreds of yellowing insurance deeds,
Edges scrolled with elaborate design,
Flamboyant signatures dwarfing the page.
Letters from a now-dead world,
More and more lost to us
With the passing of each alzheimed and dementiad elder.
Their memories die with them.
Fumes of dusty, moldy, musty paper.

Yesterday’s egg shells.
The innards of Thanksgiving squash.
Christmas dinner’s tough asparagus tips.
Morning coffee grounds.
Cucumber skin strips.
Potato peels that reek and stink.

The unwanted, the dead, the dying.

Nature’s tidbits and rejects,
Withered cabbage leaves,
Thorny rose stems and torn leaves,
Dry sticks and beetle-ridden branches,
Cuttings and cuttings,
More dead and dead things dying.

All forgotten
A stinking pile of mess and chaos
Decaying

The barrel turns and spins,
The sun shines,
The rain pours,
The seasons come and go,
Little creatures nibble and gnaw, multiplying
In the muck.
Sacred death works its magic
And arises, reborn—and very much alive.

Exquisite, rich-scented soil
Invaluable
Precious
Pure

Now roses open brighter faces,
Green meats flex their bursting muscles,
And starving roots taste satisfaction.
Baby shoots leap up in joy
And once-belabored trees now swell
Their grateful fruits with happy sweetness.

Ruthmary’s newsletters,
Life insurance deeds,
War paraphernalia,
1940s high school programs,
Fuzzy cucumber skins
And moldy squash
Now nourish and delight
Once more (and forever)
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
Friends, enemies, and the yet unborn.

Life begins again.
And so eternal death and defeat
Are endlessly irresistibly overcome.

Compost?
The best and the highest of all earth:
A stinking pile of mess and chaos
Transformed victoriously
From dead, unwanted, unremembered, dying,
Into everlasting never-ending life.