Details

Important Matters

Why do we focus on the details,

those little things?

Are they important?

We rarely think about that inevitable day

when we’ll be still and quiet in our coffins

and what comes after.

Even thinking of death,

Mom thought about the details.

At her request, she wore

her black-velvet dress

and pearl necklace.

But her lipstick color was off.

My aunt said we should tell the funeral director to change it.

I didn’t, because it seemed so unimportant, but was it?

Are the details actually more important than the big things?

Like where do you go after you die?

When I die, I want my ashes to be planted with a rainbow tree

in my daughter’s back yard in Phoenix where rainbow trees can grow.

But I plan to be a long way from Phoenix and somewhere a lot cooler.