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The Funeral

Ceramic white angels sit beside the dark wooden sleeper
Which holds her in soft shades of ivory and Pink, her favorite color.
Varieties of flower smells tickled with chemicals, and perfumes, hang
Heavy and weighted like the draperies on the walls around her.
Flat voices echo through the airy room, murmuring
"She looks wonderful." and "She looks so peaceful" randomly, unconvinced.

Black dresses with dark ribbons decorate the children who play
Unnoticed in corners as they to blend into the paneling, staying clean.
Armies mill in quiet circles, surrounding each other with teardrops and silence.
She is the display of unexpectedness. Surprise.

Her lips, chalky, not slick as they were in life when she breathed
"I love you" to her husband in WWII, or cried at the birth of her granddaughter.
The blond wig, ill fitted and itchy, a gift from fast breast cancer,
Chemotherapy and radiation that had been in vein.
Her empty shell, hallow and muted, the light gone.
Parades rode past her, telling her kin that she would be missed,
Stopping to remember how nice she looked when she was young,
What a preserves she made from scratch! "Wasn't that from your tree, Tom?"
"At least she isn't suffering anymore" Perky and stylish smiling at youthful anger.
"What the hell do you know about suffering?" Gasp!

Empty rows line the open hallways, family stands in wait. Burial.
Husband, tall and white-lined, manicured mustached kisses the icy face of
The beloved and 39 years as his blue eyes float with unshed tears and words.
His granddaughter, her likeness, beside him, tucks her 11 year old hand inside
The warmth of his, latching onto his little finger with her hand. Raining tears
Fall as the family touches what is left of her ghost and the final lid is closed.
The dreary June day matches the mood of those who stand in mud in heels.
Creeping ache fills the hearts as it occurs to them that it would be the last look,
The last touch and the last remembrance and a howl fills the air.
"She wouldn't want you to remember this day, Sweetheart."

Learn more about this author, J.R. Lewis.
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