I need to go to a funeral.
I haven’t been to a funeral
in a while. I don’t remember
the last one I went to. I need
to go to one so I don’t forget
what death is all about.
I need to meet people who
for years were part of my life
but are now only part of my past.
I need to meet the relatives
and friends and colleagues who
have been only names brought
up in conversations. I need to
go to one more funeral before
I die. I don’t want the deceased
to be a friend but a third cousin
I met once at another funeral
or a neighbor I waved to those five
or six times during the years we
lived on the same road, all those
forty-five or forty-six years. I need
to go to his open casket funeral.
I need to see his face for once.
Nominated for the National Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of over 40 books of poetry and co-author of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.