Ash Wednesday

Because I know that fame’s
a thing that can’t be carried with me
when I, as dust to dust,
go down into the grave,
and cannot serve as light or warmth
beneath the earth,
I hope now that my name
will be passed on with love
in an unsullied state
in others’ memory
and will remain marked out
on living tongues
at least a while
as if a flame that brightens
darkness at the end of day.
That is, I think, as much
as one can ask for of
the ever-turning world.