Andrew Riutta

Full Circle

Last week my twenty-two-year-old daughter asked me, while we were smoking in the garage, if I’d want to be buried in the “natural” cemetery downstate that she’s been researching online—one that allows you to dissolve into the soil without a vault—or cremated and scattered up in the U.P. And if the latter, would it be along the shores somewhere or right in Lake Superior. I told her once more about the time when I was a boy and had, along with my friends, seen a black bear drown itself on purpose (for unknown reasons). We watched it sink in those icy, unforgiving depths, yet surrounded by the soft pinks and powdery blues of a green, bustling late-June dawn.

from my hand to hers . . . 
beach agates the color
of the moon

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About the Author

Andrew Riutta was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is a father, chef, and Zamboni operator. His latest book, Blessed: Modern Haibun on Almost Every Despair (Red Moon Press, 2022), won the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Award for Best Haibun Book and was also shortlisted for a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award.

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