This is "Bitter Herb".
And there's a reference here for the story of Gilgamesh
that oldest epic of Western civilization.
But I don't think I really need to explain it too much.
"Bitter Herb".
"I had to lie down in the Earth myself
plowing the sand with my belly, propelling myself
under the wire fence that kept us apart.
I just stood there for a long time
on the other side just clinging to a post
until the Sheriff said someone would
have to cross over and identify the body.
Through the gauntlet of the Earth,
the scrambling weeds, the willows striking my shoulders
like whips.
I crawled, and bent, and shuffled
until I was beside my brother.
His face as if someone had taken it apart
and put it back together in a wry riddle of wood.
Death was a riddle to Gilgamesh when
he went looking for a way to bring his brother Enkidu back
to life.
He was told to find the plant of opening, a mysterious herb that
grew by the banks of a stagnant pond like this one
at the edge of a desert waste and was warned
that it would prick his own hand as he cut free its bitter root.
On the way back, Gilgamesh stopped to rest and bathe
as he drifted back into himself full of relief, reverie
and rescue.
A snake came out of the grasses, and swallowed
the herb of eternal life.
But these waters near where my brother lay
were still and empty.
The plant of opening, rose colored,
ambrosial did not shimmer like a prism in the murky depths.
My brother had aimed at his own heart.
Not once, but twice firing down the pathway of the soul.
And the only sign of a snake was his discarded skin.
When I said, yes, that is my brother, Clinton Seiferle.
I heard the fingers of the dead snapping around me.
They would not let me touch him.
He was still evidence, the last witness
of the story they thought they would find
in the cleanings of his fingernails in his shirt
as if shredded by a swarm of bees from the powder burns.
In the ground seething with ants.
The flies swarming, and settling upon him.
His dead dog that lay at his feet.
He had come to the edge of that abyss, where fear came out
of the water and consumed whatever could have brought him
back to life.
Three days later, I'm the only one who comes back to life
realizing that I'm still wearing the same clothes.
My jeans prickly with nettles.
As I slip out of the black and stinging fabric,
I find the pockets are full of sand.
How can I give this Earth to the waters
for touching these fine grains, these sparkling abrasions?
It seems I touch all that remains of the lost
face of my brother."