Funeral

Poefusion has a prompt called Friday 5. It's a set of five words, around which you are invited to write a poem.

Tricky.

How will you last until they’ve laid the stone—
impatient, checking timepieces, both clock
and watch. If that’s your attitude, go on
and leave. The relatives won’t die of shock.
Would it be disrespect? Perhaps, or not:
it’s truism to say the ceremony
benefits the living. Really, what
good does it do to stand there with that phony
look of grief? Go home. Take off the suit.
Say farewell on your own time, in your way.
Taste slow regret, eat honest bitter fruit,
consign the memories to slow decay,
and play a mourning march on drum and fife.
It makes no difference to the afterlife.

The words were: attitude, timepiece, ceremony, stone, afterlife


If you like poetry, check out the weekly prompt site at Totally Optional Prompts