Gregory Ramkawsky: "Funeral Observations"

Funeral Observations
For Wesley
​
​The snippets of conversation,
“He’s a preacher,” she said
Loudly, as though
Everyone else was deliberately
Or perhaps sublimely
Deaf to her observation;
Her “did-I-say-that-out-loud,”
Her “lack-of-internal-volume-control”
In the back row of grief

The picture of Jesus
Brown eyed (this time)
Staring, or gazing off to the left
In the slightly-too-narrow
Dissident hallway
Staring at sinners, but
Gazing at saints,
Mutely observing the grief
Just off to his left

The yellow legal pad
With frantic, yet precise
Seating orders and family names
Black ink D’Nealian
Scribbled upon its top sheet
Too cheery a color to write
The service order for the dead;
Altogether unfitting for a man
Who was anything but...

The wrinkled, grizzled faces
Each with resignation
Acknowledge deep down
They may be next in line
To welcome a group of aged,
Muffled greetings and farewells
From the other side of a box
Surrounded by flowers
Bearing well-meant condolences

The “untitled poem”
Read by the man who titled it,
The Vonnegut quotation
Assuring all the doleful
That “Everything was beautiful,
And nothing hurt”
Following a sermon,
Which, if applied, could
Render the prophecy
Of that quotation true

The shuffling people,
Not knowing quite what else to do
Gathered to remember
And also to forget
To lay to rest a man they knew
Or didn’t
Fumbling with sorrow
Like they would a set of keys
Just outside their car
On the way to somewhere else

Greg Ramkawsky lives in Central Pennsylvania with his wife and five children. He is the Associate Pastor of a local church and teaches High School English, where he is privileged to be able to teach others to read, write, and appreciate poetry. He would rather die than follow mediocrity, and he is passionate about serving others in practical, meaningful, lasting ways.