“The Dead Burn Easily” by Patricia Furstenberg on Poetry Potion

I am so excited to share with you my poem “The Dead Burn Easily“, that was chosen by Poetry Potion as their feature for A Poem A Day.

THE DEAD BURN EASILY by Patricia Furstenberg

Step, step on this land
That was not yours to begin with.
Run, pound the roads that were not of your making.
The dead burn easily.

Laugh at the sun, laugh at life
That was gifted to you.
Cry, yell at what they stole.
The dead burn easily.

Fight your bother, fight your nemesis,
Fight your wife and your child.
Who will remember you, don’t you know that
The dead burn easily.

The dreaded: What Does the Poet Wants to Say?

…I asked a young adult (my daughter, who loves poetry and studied English in her first year at Uni). Without knowing who the author was, in her opinion this is a poem inspired by war. She said:

The first two stanzas depict life at it was before the battles started, when children could play and run in the street. Their lives were happy and careless, as were everyone else’s.

Last stanza depicts life at it changed during a war, when pre-war relationships didn’t matter anymore, they’ve been erased by the atrocity everyone was forced into. Brother turns against brother, family against family – anything is possible in order to survive.

The title of the poem, that is also reaffirmed at the end of each stanza, underlines the idea that it doesn’t matter what life one led. In death we are all equal. As we are after a war, when only the dead seem to be left behind, and the easiest way to get read of their staggering numbers, to erase the memory of war, is to burn them.

What the poet wanted to say in “The Dead Burn Easily”

What we are given, this life, is a gift.

No matter how much we fight with each another, after we die we will all be equal; we’ll return to ash. No fights will ever matter anymore. We better make the most of what we have, now, because this is it. This is what we’ll ever have. Now. Today.

You can read my poem on the Poetry Potion website here. (May 24th). Thank you!

NEW POEM: The dead burn easily by Patricia Furstenberg#Poem#Poetry#PoemOfTheDay#PoetryPotion https://t.co/MIGLferid1

— Poetry Potion (@poetrypotion) May 24, 2022

Poetry Potion is part of Kwasukela Media.

I am grateful to my friend Martina Ramsauer for her lovely comment over on Poetry Potion. I will reply here, since there comment were closed when I found hers.

Thank you so much, Martina!

Martina said: “

“When I read the first lines of your goose pimples provoking poem, I immediately thought of colonisators, dear Patricia, but I realized that you want us to understand that we should be happy with what is our own and to laugh at life 🙂
I thank you very much for this poem.
A sunny day.”