There are reams of life left to be lived

Still in the garden
Still in my head

My friends-
include you who
Promise to show up at my funeral
in a black veil

Dancing and laughing
Confusing the whole shindig-
Why wasn’t parade wasn’t held-

The decision
Made
Long before –

Yes, celebrate & goddsakes sing
Another!

Wants a Viking send-off-
Resplendent
Fiery
after a proper Shemira:
A week of sitting with her
In mourning-
My knees still buckle at
Funerals
My brother’s
And the last one I attended-
A woman who failed as a mother-
In ways mine did not.

She chiseled a new remembrance than only I could hold-
not her daughter
Someone with no name,
But friend-
An equal
She still flashed beauty to-

Letting go
Carefully

Unwrapping her stories over and over
Until I could recite them back,

Start to finish-

 

It was enough
To honor
To hold vigil
For life

Never heard about-

Most of my friends

Want to forgo the elaborate funeral
Like my father’s

Where a priest knew my Dad’s favorite ice cream was
Butter Pecan

Maybe that is all that matters-

The tiniest details of the last year
Coming like a flash-

Leaving with

Fireworks
Always popping-

Like how your smile
Starts like a sunrise

Burning
A swath

In my mind’s eye

Wondering what other Sweetness
You hide away

Me still being held up
By someone stronger-

A hand larger
Than me

Of course we are so much more
than our beginnings and endings-
HOW
We play in the fray-
Laughing away
The pain
The new year
Starts
Follows in a rush

Less fanfare
The most

But with just as much potential
To
burn
Deep in my
a heart
A remembrance

A question held
A sacredness

Of new friends
Just on this horizon
And the next
22
Coupled
Strong
Fastened in

Like no other year
GOOD LUCK I hope somethingWORKS before it is TOOOO TOOO LATE