“Excuse my dust,” the epitaph

that Dorothy Parker proposed be hers,

doesn’t make me cry but laugh.

Posthumously, cris de coeurs

should all like Dorothy’s be modest.

Not treated as gods, men scoff,

as will women who aren’t goddessed,

but once we’ve all been dusted off

by the Reaper who is grim

all about which we once fussed

we’ll see as merely an ad interim

stop-gap to eternal dust,

life, sharing that same........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)