Universal play

This year has been particularly death-heavy. Family members, family of friends, friends of friends. So I've heard a lot of invocations of spiritual/religious ideas to deal with the certainty and finality of death. However, sometimes I think children have it right. Running around, carrying on, not really understanding what's going on, and not trying to. Here's a poem about that.

Universal play
Heaven has gained an angel.
Unless you don't believe
in heaven or angels.

Then, the earth has gained
a body. Unless you
burned the body.

The sky has earned some smoke.
You should never mistake
the flyaway ash

as the dusty, pigmented
sidewalk chalk
thick in children's hands.