Friday, May 05, 2006

why can't they make the living look as good as the dead?

All the people
Families
Friends
And otherwise
Congregated.

My grandmother
How she took
Steps
and
stammers
Talking to the
Onlookers.

“my god he looks 20 years younger.”
“don’t I look thin and frail?”
“have you told your brother how good your father looks?”

I didn’t
Look at him.
I couldn’t.
I got real close
To the casket.
So sick with me
I couldn’t look
At the new death
Of my grandmother
In the form
Of her resting evermore
Husband.

In an hour
I will see people
Crying
And holding each other
Telling themselves out
Loud
“everything is going to be okay.”
We could easily say
They were talking to their loved ones.

I know they are really trying to convince themselves.