From the Trustees of Forest Lawn

This is your yearly reminder that Forest Lawn

Isn’t only a shady retreat in the middle of town

For strolling and musing. It’s also a beautiful

Resting place for what will be left of you

When your spirit vanishes. Yes, a decade or more

May still be yours if your health is better than average,

But accidents happen. It isn’t too early

To decide on the individual plot that seems,

Among our many bosky acres, especially restful,

Not if you want to spare your friends and family

The burden of making a choice in haste and grief

That ought to be made in tranquility. When they visit,

In a time not distant, leaning on canes and walkers,

Think how relieved they’ll feel that you’ve chosen

A spot not far from the path, how grateful

For the marble bench we suggest you provide

For them to rest on while they ponder the part

You played in their histories, though they realize

There was much about you they never knew.

As for the good you’ll be doing yourself this moment

By choosing your grave site now, consider how different

A day is going to look once you acknowledge

That your extinction is more than a probability,

That this day is one of the numbered few remaining,

One of the little cups that will have to hold

The pressings of all the grapes you pluck.

Sign a contract with us, and the town

You may have considered only a rest stop

Will reveal itself as your final sphere of action.

Think how much closer you’ll feel to your acquaintances

When you decide to bestow on them

All the insights you may have been saving

For unknown others. It’s time to be like the tree

That we suggest you invest in to shade your bench.

Every spring it will shower its seeds

On the soil around it without once asking

Whether or not the soil deserves them,

Seeds that will work with what they find.