Secondhand Stories

I hear
a young girl calling out
to her friend to come quickly;
she has found a dead thing
but it's still moving
and she doesn't know
what to do with it -

Should we bury it
then say a prayer for its soul
so it could cross over
to another life?
But what if it doesn't want
another life, Sally?
What if all it wanted was

to die, and to remain dead?
You have a point, Sally says.
Oh, well. I wish the dead
could speak.