Once I planned to be buried on the Moon.
My parents laughed and said, "That's fine,
But mankind won't be going there very soon."
They were mistaken, but it won't help those
childhood burial plans of mine.

Then I grew young and in love with London Town.
My girlfriends laughed when I said, "I'll be
Laid near the Thames, both often and down."
I was wrong about often, and down appears
a lot less likely now to me.

Lately I've chosen the ocean as a resting place.
I laugh and say to myself, "Oh well,
It's a little like a river, a little like space."
That's a romantic, somewhat more probable grave,
yet not what I'd foretell.

I suspect, you see, all fantasies aside,
Someone who hardly knows me will say, "He
Will be happy here, where he was born and died."
Maybe. But it's a long way from the Moon,
or England, or even the Sea.

--W W Cooper