The Funeral of George Floyd

 

I knew a man

Named Jerry who

After a funeral said,

I look at it this way

He’s gone

And I’m still here

His wife tried to shoosh

Him, though I suppose

There was truth in

What he said,

If not the saying of it

 

He’s gone

And we’re still here

Prayers to heaven might

Release him into

Further bliss, so some

Doctrines say

We can do that here for him

 

But all the rest

Is us for us

To take part in a life after

The fact, the death

Of all we could have known

We’ll acknowledge

Even celebrate

Laugh a little

Wish we could laugh a lot

We’re no good at this

 

There is an expression

To choke the life out of it

A program

Or a promise or a pledge

To take it literally

Upon a person

Outside of stagey melodrama

A Darth-Vader move

Is never having been sublime

But move the

Ridiculous to an absurdity

Of evil

 

Might we be

Angry at a funeral?

I think we might

But be sad first

Make crying space

For tears and any keening

Let him go

And never let him go

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by William Rouse on Unsplash