Reincarnation: “What does Reincarnation mean?” A cowpoke asked his friend. His pal replied, “It happens when Yer life has reached its end. They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck, And clean yer fingernails, And lay you in a padded box Away from life’s travails.” “The box and you goes in a hole, That’s been dug into the ground. Reincarnation starts in when Yore planted ‘neath a mound. Them clods melt down, just like yer box, And you who is inside. And then yore just beginnin’ on Yer transformation ride.” “In a while, the grass’ll grow Upon yer rendered mound. Till some day on yer moldered grave A lonely flower is found. And say a hoss should wander by And graze upon this flower That once wuz you, but now’s become Yer vegetative bower.” “The posy that the hoss done ate Up, with his other feed, Makes bone, and fat, and muscle Essential to the steed, But some is left that he can’t use And so it passes through, And finally lays upon the ground This thing, that once wuz you.” “Then say, by chance, I wanders by And sees this upon the ground, And I ponders, and I wonders at, This object that I found. I thinks of reincarnation, Of life and death, and such, And come away concludin’: ‘Slim, You ain’t changed, all that much.’”