Happy Canada Day, Yukon!
Sam McGee Argues with His Box of Authentic Ashes
It is rumoured that Sam McGee once ran into a young man selling the authentic ashes of Sam McGee, the cremated hero of “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” by Yukon poet Robert W. Service. Amused, he bought them, because how many men could say they bought their own ashes?
I was offered the chance to buy a piece of myself
the other day, and so I did. I came in a small bag,
which I found very saddening and undignified,
so I bought myself a nice hand-carved wooden box—
and I carefully sifted myself into it.
And I wondered, half in morbid amusement,
which part of myself I had purchased—the arms
of a road builder, the bad luck as a gold panner,
the sedate life of a married farmer, a churchgoer.
Was it the best parts of my life, or the worst?
I opened the box to examine myself up close—
to see what kind of man I was—the fine grain of me,
the coarseness, the smell of my life all burned up—
—when I was surprised to hear a voice come from the box—
like an excited street-corner barker. “What a treasure you hold
in your hand! What a great life you have purchased!
A lucky man is he who holds the ashes of Sam McGee!”
“Oh really,” I chuckled. “Tell me about Sam McGee,
this treasure.”
Bear Witness 